Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party received a shot in the arm on Sunday with veteran politician Muzaffar Hussain Baig, the first major Kashmiri political figure to embrace the Centre after the 2019 scrapping of the special status, returning to the party.

Baig, a founding member of the People’s Democratic Party and a former deputy chief minister, had left the party but not joined any other party.

In 2020, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, apparently for cosying up to the Centre. He had called Article 370 a legislation of “history”.

Baig’s return is seen as a setback to the Centre’s perceived goal of ridding Jammu and Kashmir of the PDP, known for espousing soft separatism in the past.

“I never left the party. If you uproot a tree and plant it somewhere else, it will dry up,” Baig told reporters.

The PDP had appeared on the brink following the abrogation of Article 370. Its senior leaders, including Mehbooba, were jailed while many like Baig deserted the party. He did not join any party.

Baig by her side, Mehbooba launched a fresh swipe at the Centre alleging it was talking to militants in the Northeast while branding ordinary Kashmiris as militants.

“We will not surrender; we will not raise the white flag. If you talk to us with dignity, we will respond with respect. However, if you talk through batons like you did in Bafliaz, it will not work,” Mehbooba told a gathering at Bijbehara in Anantnag district. She was referring to the alleged killings of three civilians in army custody in Poonch.

“There (in the Northeast) you talk to militants while in Jammu and Kashmir you have branded common people as militants. You have filled the jails by carrying out arrests. The Enforcement Directorate, NIA, SIA raids… does anyone treat their own people like this?” she said.