SRI NAGAR: Putting to rest the speculation that Jammu & Kashmir may see a change of guard because Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is “unwell”, Mehbooba Mufti, president of the ruling PDP, has said that her father is keeping good health and will reach the Valley on Tuesday.
“Mufti sahib is well and keeping good health. He returned to the national capital today. He will be returning to the Valley tomorrow,” Mehbooba told reporters in Baramulla district on Monday, adding that the Chief Minister had gone from Delhi to Mumbai and then to Bengaluru to meet his son.
Mufti has been out of the state for over 10 days. And the speculation that he was unwell and might relinquish the Chief Minister post in favour of Mehbooba picked up after she asked PDP workers to pray for pray for the long life of her father in Anantnag on August 18. The PDP MP had also said Mufti was not in the best of his health.
Also, there were rumours that Mufti had held consultations with the BJP leadership in Delhi on a change of guard in the coalition government. And Mehbooba, who had been missing from the state’s political scene since the PDP-BJP Government came to power on March 1, has been attending party functions regularly for a fortnight now.
Maintaining that Mufti was keeping well, she said: “He had given a half-an-hour speech during the Independence Day function at Bakhsi Stadium in Srinagar.”
At the function, Mufti had praised his one-time bete-noir and NC founder Sheikh Abdullah.