Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 4: After brief truce, PDP Member Parliament from Srinagar Tariq Hamid Karra today again came out openly against the party including Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti slamming her for not bringing in new faces in the Council of Ministry and repeating some of the faces, who had alleged planned coup against her while PDP dropout Altaf Bukhari, former Works Minister, said he was all for the party though being dropped.
Similar was the stand of BJP veteran Choudhary Sukhnandan, former PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister, who didn’t find a berth in the Cabinet while Independent MLA from Udhampur, Pawan Gupta, who was dropped by the BJP, said he will play the role of constructive opposition and act as “watchdog’’ for the interests of Jammu region.
Slamming Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for not bringing in new faces in the Council of Ministers, MP and senior PDP leader Tariq Hamid Karra boycotted the swearing-in ceremony of the new Government in protest.
However, another PDP Lok Sabha member Muzaffar Hussain Baig attended the oath ceremony.
“I have boycotted the swearing-in-ceremony. During the discussion on finalization of Council of Ministers, I had certain reservations (over the induction of three PDP MLAs- Altaf Bukhari, Naeem Akhter and Haseeb Drabu) which I had put before the party chief in the first meeting in Srinagar”, Karra said.
“If you want to come with same faces, a wrong message will go. Those three PDP MLAs, who are responsible for Mufti Government’s failure, were collaborators in back-stabbing him (Mufti),” he said.
Karra hit out at the trio and said “if you continue with them, you are keeping the option of back-stabbing open”.
“You (Mehbooba) are sending a message that you are rewarding the collaborators who had tried to engineer a coup against you. The message will be wrong”, he said.
Karra said he told Mehbooba Mufti that God had given her this opportunity and she should avail it.
“You replace all of them. You drop one, shift another to Council and make somebody else Finance Minister”, he said.
He said that during his first meeting with Mehbooba, he had put forward his reservations over their inclusion in the Council of Ministers and she had asked him to come, sit and analyze.
“She promised me that if you are not satisfied with my decision, that I am doing something wrong, do not come to my swearing-in-ceremony,” he said adding “I am convinced that you are doing something wrong and I will not be coming tomorrow”.
There is no introspection (on her part). After debacle, introspection does take place, she has not done it, she is keeping “snakes up her sleeves”, he said.
Meanwhile, Altaf Bukhari, Works Minister in Mufti Sayeed Government and MLA Amirakadal, said he has no grievances with the PDP leadership on being dropped out from the Ministry.
“I have 35 years family relations with Muftis. I have no problem on being dropped out. I will work for strengthening the party and nurse my constituency,’’ he said.
BJP veteran leader Choudhary Sukhnandan Kumar, MLA Marh, who was dropped by the BJP from Cabinet and replaced by Sham Choudhary, said he welcomes any decision taken by the party leadership.
“Any decision taken by the party is welcome. Everyone can’t be a Minister. Some of us have to work as MLAs. I will work as MLA just I had done for six years from 2008 to 2014, for betterment of the party and people of my constituency,’’ Sukhnandan said.
Independent MLA from Udhampur, Pawan Gupta, who was Minister of State for Finance in previous regime from the BJP quota, said he would play the role of constructive opposition and act as “watchdog’’ for interests of the Jammu people.
“I will play the role of healthy opposition,’’ Gupta said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel