Mehbooba Mufti: First Woman Of Kashmir Valley

Of the four children of Mufti - one of the foremost politicians of the Valley - Mehbooba Mufti is the only one who chose to join politics.

Mehbooba Mufti represents the Anantnag constituency in the Lok Sabha. To take over the reins of Jammu and Kashmir, she will have to resign.

She started her political career in 1996, by standing for election from Bijbehara assembly seat on a Congress ticket. She won with a comfortable majority.

In 1999, when Mufti broke away from the Congress following its alliance with arch-rival National Conference, she resigned too.

She formed the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party with her father the same year.

Many thought Mehbooba Mufti should be the new party's president. But she deferred to her father's experience and became his second-in-command.

In 1999, she lost the parliamentary election to Omar Abdullah from Srinagar, a bastion of his National Conference.

In 2004, Mehbooba Mufti won her first parliamentary election from Anantnag, becoming the youngest and the third woman politician from the state to do so.

Born on May 22, 1956, she is a law graduate from Kashmir University.

She is a divorcee with two daughters.