SRINAGAR: In a significant political development, senior leader and former legislator Mohammad Amin Bhat today resigned from the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), the regional outfit founded by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Bhat, who served as the Provincial President of DPAP in Kashmir, confirmed his decision in a statement issued to the press, expressing gratitude to Azad and extending his best wishes to the party leadership. “I thank Ghulam Nabi Azad for the opportunity and wish him well in his political journey,” he said.
A political figure from south Kashmir’s Kulgam district, Bhat was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in 2014 from the Devsar constituency on an Indian National Congress ticket. He had previously contested the Devsar seat in 2008 but lost. Bhat later parted ways with Congress following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and aligned with Azad when he launched the DPAP in 2022.
Born in 1966 in Devsar, Kulgam, Bhat is the son of Abdul Rehman Bhat. He completed his Class 10 education in 1984.
In the 2014 Assembly elections, Bhat secured a narrow but decisive win over JKPDP’s Mohammed Sartaj Madni, polling 35.08 per cent of the vote. However, his political fortunes waned in subsequent years. In the 2024 elections, contesting on a DPAP ticket, he managed only 10.66 per cent of the vote in Devsar, losing to JKNC’s Peerzada Feroze Ahmad, who secured 27.91 per cent.
While Bhat has not yet indicated his next political move, his resignation is expected to deal a blow to the already struggling DPAP, which has seen a series of high-profile exits over the past year.
Political watchers in Kashmir see Bhat’s departure as further evidence of the regional party’s diminishing influence amid a resurgent National Conference and Congress and an emboldened Bharatiya Janata Party eyeing the region.
