Mufti Mohammed Sayeed laid to rest

79-year-old Sayeed was flown to New Delhi on Dec 24 last year andadmitted to AIIMS Critical Care ICU with complaints of fever and neckpain.

“The governor has returned to Jammu after paying condolences to the family of chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in Srinagar on Thursday”, Raj Bhawan sources told IANS here.

The state has a deputy chief minister who belongs to the BJP and as per precedence, Nirmal Singh can look after the day-to-day affairs of governance in the absence of the chief minister. “In his long political journey he won many admirers across the political spectrum”, Modi said.

After remaining in the Congress for better part of his life Mufti alongwith some likeminded associates and daughter Mehbooba Mufti founded Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1999 and led the first PDP-Congress coalition government in the State from 2002 to 2005.

Born on January 12, 1936 in the Brijbehara area of South Kashmir, Mufti graduated in law from Srinagar’s Sri Pratap College.

Mufti is also believed to have been instrumental in overthrowing National Conference government in the year 1984.

Mr Sayeed’s other daughter Mehbooba Mufti is considered his political heir, and through his illness there has been talk of her succeeding to the chief minister’s chair in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said Sayeed’s death has created a void in the socio- political arena of the state and the country “which is very hard to fill”.

“Since she is presently not a member of either the Legislative Assembly or the Legislative Council, Mehbooba Mufti will have to either get elected to the Assembly or be nominated as a member of the council”, Shah added.