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SRINAGAR: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday chaired the first formal meeting of the PDP after the BJP pulled out from the coalition government she headed, and directed workers to accelerate efforts to reach out to the masses while foiling designs of those wanting to weaken the party.

Mehbooba Mufti chaired a meeting of senior leaders and workers of the party from south Kashmir here today, a PDP spokesman said.

This was the first formal meeting of the party leaders after the BJP pulled out from the coalition government headed by the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir last month. The state has since been put under Governor's rule.

Mehbooba Mufti had earlier met some of the party legislators who called on her separately after her return from New Delhi. The legislators had assured her of support in the wake of rebellion by few legislators against her leadership.

The spokesman said stressing upon the need to strengthen the party at grass-roots level, the Mehbooba Mufti told party activists that PDP owes its emergence to avowed objectives of peace and reconciliation and it cannot commit a sin to defeat the mission of its patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed or undermine the sacrifices of its people and party workers by compromising on the basic agenda.

She directed all the leaders to accelerate efforts to reach out to the common masses. "It is a time to strengthen the party which has emerged as a pedestal of hope for the people of the state, yearning to see an end to chaos and bloodshed. There is a dire need that everyone has to put earnest and sincere efforts to strengthen the party and make it a more vibrant force that can fight for the peoples' rights with an impeccable will and remain in the forefront to end their predicament," Mehbooba Mufti told the meeting.

She stressed on the need to foil the "vicious designs of the vested interests who are hell-bent to weaken the PDP" and added that it has now dawned upon all across the political spectrum of the country and the state as well that PDP shall never barter the peoples aspirations for power.

"The party founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed deserted all comforts and decided to trek the perilous path with the sole reason to get his strife-torn people out of the uncertain times and strengthen their beliefs in the institutions of justice," the PDP president said.

The spokesman said party leaders provided valuable suggestions to reach out to the people in order to further strengthen the party and also asserted that they stand by the decisions of PDP leadership and assured full support to party chief Mehbooba Mufti "in good as well as bad times".

They said that they stand by the ideology and agenda of the party envisaged by Sayeed who floated the PDP to mitigate the sufferings of the people of the state, the spokesman said.

