Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Dies At 79

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed has died at a hospital in Delhi. He was 79.

Sources in his People’s Democratic Party said his daughter Mehbooba Mufti will take over as the Chief Minister. The oath ceremony is likely to be on Monday. She will be the first woman Chief Minister of the state.

Mr Sayeed had been suffering from lung infection for two weeks and had been admitted at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He was put on ventilator support yesterday after his condition worsened.

The patron of Jammu and Kashmir’s People’s Democratic Party, Mr Sayeed took oath as the Chief Minister on March 1, 2015, with the BJP as a partner in the coalition government.

It was his second stint at the state’s top job — he held the post between 2002 and 2005, in a rotational arrangement with Congress.

“Can’t imagine a worse situation for Mehbooba to take over. She will have to rise to the occasion,” Mr Abdullah told NDTV. The budget session of the assembly, scheduled to start on January 18, will have to be put off, he added.

Mr Sayeed had formed the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (JKPDP) in 1999 with daughter Mehbooba. Before that he had been a part of the Congress and the Jan Morcha under V P Singh.

In 1989, he became the Home Minister of India in the VP Singh government, the first Muslim to hold that post.

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Source:Ndtv

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed