PDP chief's tricolour remarks trigger another exit; senior leader Ramzan Hussain joins BJP

The fallout of Mehbooba Mufti's contentious remarks about the tricolour continued on Wednesday as senior PDP leader Dr.Ramzan Hussain quit the party. He joined BJP along with his supporters at the party's headquarters in Srinagar. Hussain had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Assembly polls from the Bani constituency as a BSP candidate before joining PDP. Stressing that the people of J&K are very optimistic about the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he opined that the region is on the right track towards peace and development.

Hussain asserted that the people of the Union Territory will never tolerate an insult to the national flag. Welcoming him into the party, J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina assured him of full support in his public welfare endeavours. Earlier on Monday, PDP leaders from the Jammu region- TS Bajwa, Ved Mahajan and Hussain A Waffa resigned from the primary membership of the party.

Dr.Ramzan Hussain remarked, "I am feeling elated that I am back in my old house. Differences have emerged over the national flag. This should not happen. The parties and the persons indulging in such tactics will get not succeed. We will never tolerate an insult to the national flag."

Read: Mob Barges Into PDP's Office To Hoist National Flag After Mufti Refuses To Hoist Tricolour

Read: SSDF Holds Protest Against PDP President In Jammu

Mufti refuses to raise the tricolour

Addressing her first press conference since her release from detention on October 23, Mehbooba Mufti categorically asserted that she won't raise the national flag until the restoration of J&K's special status. During the briefing, only the flag of erstwhile J&K was kept on the table in front of her. This has evoked massive protests in the Union Territory besides attempts being made to hoist the tricolour at the PDP office. 

"My flag is this (points to the flag of J&K kept on the table in front of her). When this flag comes back, we'll raise that flag (tricolour) too. Until we get our own flag back, we won't raise any other flag. Our relationship with the flag of this country is not independent of this flag (Jammu and Kashmir's flag). When this flag comes in our hand, we will raise that flag too," PDP supremo Mehbooba Mufti stated. 

Read: NC, PDP Befooling People In Name Of 'Gupkar Alliance': BJP's Kavinder Gupta