Srinagar, Feb. 1 -- As the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti continues to be detained following New Delhi's withdrawal of Article 370, her party is fast falling apart with many of its leaders leaving it to form a new political outfit which doesn't challenge withdrawal of J&K's autonomy. The party recently expelled eight of its senior leaders for hobnobbing with the government in violation of "interests of the state, official position and core beliefs of the party".

This has confronted the PDP and Mehbooba herself with a moment of reckoning. Once a vaunted political outfit which was the single largest party in the last Assembly, the PDP has now reduced to fewer members. That is, if they too don't abandon the party in near future.

An indication of...