After fiery Twitter spat, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti blocks cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday blocked cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir after exchanging sharp barbs on Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir on Twitter.

The spat ensued after Mufti criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over public interest litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to ban Valley-based politicians Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and herself from participating in the Lok Sabha election starting April 11 over their statements “against the Indian Constitution”.

“Why waste time in court. Wait for BJP to scrap Article 370. It will automatically debar us from fighting elections since Indian constitution won’t be applicable to J&K anymore. Na samjho gay tou mit jaouge aye Hindustan walo. Tumhari dastaan tak bhi na hogi dastaano main.(If you do not understand, o people of India, you will be erased. You would not have your tales written in history),” she tweeted.

Gautam Gambhir, who joined BJP last month, responded to the tweet saying that this is India, not a “blot like you that can be erased”.

Mufti came back with a sharp retort, “Hope your political innings in the BJP is not as abysmal as your cricket career."

Soon after, the 37-year-old former opening batsman hit out with, "Oh! So you have unblocked my twitter handle! You needed 10 hours to respond to my tweet and come up with such a pedestrian analogy! Too slow. It shows the Mufti then blocked him, adding that she's worried for his mental health and that this level of stalking is unhealthy." 

Not to be outdone, the former J&K chief minister in her parting shot, says, “I worry for your mental health. Am used to people trolling but this level of stalking is unhealthy. Id imagine most people sleep at night. Better to since you dont know anything about kashmir . Here blocking you now so u can do the 2 rupee per tweet trolling somewhere else."

I worry for your mental health. Am used to people trolling but this level of stalking is unhealthy. Id imagine most people sleep at night. Better to since you dont know anything about kashmir . Here blocking you now so u can do the 2 rupee per tweet trolling somewhere else — Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) April 9, 2019

Gambhir responded back, "Most welcome Mehbooba Mufti Ma'am, happy to be blocked by a callous individual. By the way, at the time of writing this tweet there are 1,365,386,456 Indians. How will you block them?"

Most welcome @MehboobaMufti Ma’am, happy to be blocked by a callous individual. By the way, at the time of writing this tweet there are 1,365,386,456 Indians. How will you block them?

— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) April 9, 2019

Gambhir, who has over nine million followers on Twitter, recently sparred with National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on the issue of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.

The cricketer announced his retirement in the year 2018 after completing 10,000 runs in List-A cricket. The Delhi unit of BJP had included Gambhir's name in the list of probable candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital.