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Sixty-seven-year-old Mufti Muhammed Sayeed, leader of the People's Democratic Party and soon to be sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, lives with the tag of a man blamed for the rise in militancy in the state and faces a yeoman task of shedding that image.
It was during Sayeed's tenure as the Union home minister in the Vishwanat Pratap Singh-led Janata Dal government, from December 1989 to November 1990, that saw the rise of militancy in the valley.
His daughter Rubayya was kidnapped by militants and later freed after Mufti allowed the release of some jailed terrorists.
Emboldened by their success the militants heightened their activities in the state and Mufti received a lot of flak for his action, though he still believes in conducting talks with militants to bring peace to the valley.
Born on January 12, 1936 in Bijbehara of Anantnag district in J&K, Mufti studied at S P college in Srinagar and went to Aligarh for his MA, and later acquired a degree in law.
His political journey began in 1950 through the National Conference and in 1959 he was member of the Democratic National Conference.
He became a Congressman after his party merged with the Congress in 1965. He remained in the party for a long period, also being the state president from 1975 to 1987.
Sayeed was a member of the state legislative assembly from 1962 to 1972 followed by five years as a Member of the Legislative Council. He was the deputy minister of agriculture and cooperation, and minister of works and urban development.
In 1985, he again won his assembly seat from Anantnag.
A long time critic of the National Conference, he has a running feud with Farooq Abdullah, who blames him for the dismissal of his government in 1984 and 1990.
In 1987, with the Congress on the backfoot in the bofors scandal, he joined the Janata Dal and rose to prominence by becoming the first Muslim Union home minister at the Centre in 1989.
Mufti was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 and again in 1992, but he resigned in 1996.
After a long winter of political hibernation he returned to active politics after the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. He revived the Congress in the valley and won the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
He formed the People's Democratic Party, ahead of the J&K election, which bagged 16 seats in the recently held assembly election.
Sayeed is married to Gulshan and has one son and three daughters. His elder daughter Mehbooba has followed in his footsteps and was a Congress legislator in the state and now a prominent member of the PDP.
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