Disgruntled Baig holds meeting with Mehbooba

The attempts of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti to mollify disgruntled Lok Sabha member of the party Muzaffar Hussain Baig bore fruit on Monday as the two leaders jointly chaired a meeting of the party here.

"Senior leaders of the party today (Monday) met under the chairmanship of party President @MehboobaMufti and Muzzafar Hussain Beigh Sahab," the PDP said on its Twitter handle soon after the meeting.

The development comes amidst rebellion in the PDP with three former MLAs having quit and rumours of many more leaders likely to desert the party ahead of the fresh assembly elections.

The polls have been necessitated due to dissolution of the lower house of the state legislature by Governor Satya pal Malik on November 21.

Besides Imran Ansari and his uncle Abid Ansari, former finance minister Haseeb Drabu have resigned from the PDP following the dissolution of the assembly.

Speculations were rife that Baig, whose wife Safina Baig is the president of women's wing of the PDP, might quit the party as he came out in public against the party leadership on November 20.

"The PDP betrayed the workers, denying them a chance to connect with the people, by boycotting the (municipal) elections. They left a vacuum and that space has now been occupied. Politics does not wait for people who boycott," Baig said last month.

Baig said he was not consulted when the party took the decision to boycott the local bodies polls.

"I was in Delhi, just a phone call away. I remained quiet because I did not want the PDP to fall as under," he said.

Mehbooba had a meeting with Baig amidst uncofirmed reports that he would be made party patron.