Another senior PDP leader quits party

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 13

The Peoples Democratic Party suffered another setback on Thursday after senior leader Raja Aijaz Ali resigned from the party. The resignation comes just days after the party placated dissident leader Muzaffar Baig by appointing him as patron.

A former IPS officer who hails from the border area of Uri, Aijaz joined the PDP in 2014 after his retirement as Inspector General of Police.

In his resignation letter to PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Aijaz, who held the post of state secretary, said he had been “under immense pressure from the party workers of Uri constituency to sever the relations with the PDP which had treated the people of Uri with contempt when it governed the state.”

“Now, during the panchayat elections, the anger towards the party was more visible. After having won the majority of the seats, none wanted to identify themselves with the PDP,” he said in his resignation letter.

Aijaz, who unsuccessfully contested the elections from Uri in 2014, said he and his workers from the constituency were “humiliated by the party despite serving on very important assignments for 34 years”.

“Having complied with the sentiments and the decision of my party followers in Uri constituency, I sever the suffocating relations with the party by resigning from the basic membership of the party along with all office-bearers and party workers,” he said.