NEW DELHI: The change of guard which would make Mehbooba the first woman CM of the state could take place if Sayeeds condition does not improve in a week, the sources within the PDP have confided.
Jammu and Kashmirs chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who has been in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, has shown no improvement in the last 13 days.
Doctors treating the 79-year-old say his condition is critical.
His lung infection is not subsiding despite having been put on strong antibiotics.
He has a history of chronic pulmonary obstructive disease, a progressive lung disease, which is not helping his case either. He needed respiratory support to breathe, said a senior doctor at AIIMS.
Sayeed is on oxygen therapy which requires him to be sedated. We have put a tube down his throat that provides oxygen directly to his lungs, and for which he needs to be sedated as one cant insert a tube in a conscious persons throat without causing discomfort, said the doctor.
Other vital parameters such has blood pressure, heart rate etc., however, are stable though Sayeed had to be given a blood transfusion last week due to a low blood count.
He is responding to commands, opens his eyes, which is a positive sign. He is not in coma, said the doctor.
In a statement, AIIMS said that Sayeed is being closely monitored by a multi speciality team of doctors.
His condition requires close monitoring and our specialists are doing that round the clock, said AIIMS spokesperson Dr Amit Gupta.
Sayeed was flown in from Srinagar in a state aircraft, on the morning of December 24 after he complained of some uneasiness and fever.
The team of experts monitoring Sayeeds condition include Dr Rita Sood (Professor of Medicine), Prof Mohammad Ashraf Ganaie (Endocrinologist), Dr Tulika Seth (Hematology) and Prof. PN Dogra (Urology), among others.
A sudden rush of senior ministers and officials to Delhi on Tuesday fuelled speculations about a possible change of guard. Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti , who is attending to her father at the hospital, is likely to be made the next chief minister (CM).
Sources were quoted as saying that a decision to make Mehbooba Mufti the next CM is likely despite her reluctance, to avoid a virtually head-less government.
The sources said a crucial meeting between Mehbooba and Nayeem Akhtar on it is likely to take place very soon.
During his last press conference in Jammu in November, Sayeed had hinted at Mehbooba succeeding him. She is a grassroots leader and it has been due to her efforts that the PDP got a good number of seats and the party formed the government. She has better connect with the people and deserves to be chief minister, but it would be a collective decision, he had said. When contacted, Deputy CM Dr Nirmal Singh said, We wish Sayeed speedy recovery. As far as the change of guard in the government is concerned, we have not received any call from PDP.
Deputy CM Dr Nirmal Singh said, “We wish Sayeed speedy recovery. As far as the change of guard in the government is concerned, we have not received any call from PDP.”
The BJP, reacting for the first time to the issue, also added that it has ‘no problems’ if PDP president Mehbooba Mufti takes over as J&K CM, given the deteriorating health of her father.
Senior BJP leader and health minister of the state, J&K Chaudhary Lal Singh, clarified that the ‘change of guard’ is an ‘internal matter’ of PDP, and BJP ‘won’t interfere with it’.
BJP’s remarks came as a relief for the PDP camp as there was “considerable speculation” that BJP could have asked for the CM’s position for three years on rotational basis. According to this report in The Economic Times, BJP and RSS had expressed concerns, privately, over the ideological predilections of Mehbooba, who is seen as pro-separatists.
Sayeed, 79, himself during a media breifing in Jammu in November last year had asserted that Mehbooba was capable of running the affairs of the state. Mehbooba has been, since the PDP’s inception, a driving force behind its emergence as an alternative to the National Conference in the states politics.
The party was launched in 1999 and much of the credit for building its base is attributed to her. She was instrumental in mobilising and organising cadre for the party and is known as a hard bargainer.
When the BJP-PDP formed an alliance early this year, she worked hard to ensure that her father is accepted by the BJP as chief minister for a full term, not on a rotational basis.
Mehbooba is an MP and is not a member of either of the Houses.
A section of the BJP leadership expressed reservations about Mehbooba, but is expected to go by whatever the party high command decides.
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