Srinagar: Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has sacked her finance minister Haseeb Drabu, one of the architects of the People's Democratic Party's alliance with the BJP, following his purported comment last week that Kashmir was not a political but a social issue.

Mehbooba's decision is being seen as a snub to the BJP too. Drabu, an economist and former journalist, is considered close to BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, the national party's point man for Jammu and Kashmir. The two had played a key role in forging the tie-up in 2015 and co-authored the coalition's Agenda of Alliance.

Few political formations in the state have openly taken the position yet that Kashmir is not a political problem. The suggestion that it is a social rather than a political problem could be construed by critics as one close to how elements in the Sangh want to perceive Kashmir.

Drabu refused to comment on his unceremonious exit. "I'm not speaking today," he said in Jammu.

Drabu had been quoted as telling an event in Delhi on Friday: "It's not a political issue as far as I can see, I think we are barking up the wrong tree for the last 57 years by talking about the politics of it, that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at it in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself."

For the PDP, it is a loaded statement as the party used to espouse "self-rule" for Jammu and Kashmir.

Before it came to power for the first time, in alliance with the Congress in 2002, the PDP would openly demand and advocate self-rule in Kashmir.

After it wrested power - from 2002 to 2008 and from 2015 till now - it scaled down that ambition. But it has always demanded talks with "all Kashmiri stakeholders" and with Pakistan for a political solution to the Kashmir dispute.

The "agenda of alliance" agreed between the PDP and the BJP clearly commits them to talks with all stakeholders. It's a promise the Narendra Modi government has refused to pursue.

Separatists and the Opposition National Conference slammed Drabu's purported comment, calling it a "sell-out".

Drabu tried to control the damage, with people close to him releasing a statement on Monday that he claimed to have read out at Friday's event. The statement said Kashmir was "not just a political issue" but a social issue as well.

That did little to calm tempers in the PDP. On Sunday, revenue minister Abdul Rehman Veeri, the chairman of the party's disciplinary committee, served Drabu with a notice asking him to explain his statement that it said "contradicts" the "very belief and core agenda" of the party.

"Your statement has the potential to create a serious dent in the image and credibility of the party. Therefore, you are advised to explain as to why (a) statement detrimental to party interests was made," read the notice.

Drabu, sources said, explained his position but Mehbooba didn't relent. She wrote to governor N.N. Vohra on Monday afternoon seeking his assent to Drabu's removal from the council of ministers.

PDP chief spokesperson Rafi Ahmad Mir said Drabu's explanation had not satisfied the party. "There was thus the decision to remove him. The governor has approved the decision," he said.

Drabu, a former journalist, had been picked by Mehbooba's father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who was chief minister then, to head the Jammu and Kashmir Bank. In 2014, he won on a PDP ticket from South Kashmir's Rajpura constituency.

Sources said Mehbooba had been nursing a grudge against Drabu since he and some other PDP leaders tried to sideline her and continue the alliance with the BJP after her father's death in 2016.

Mehbooba had wanted political concessions from the Centre and indicated she might walk out of the alliance, but secret meetings between some of her legislators and the BJP unnerved her. It prompted her to shed her reluctance, without the BJP budging an inch.

The PDP has had a rocky relationship with the BJP. The two are at loggerheads over the investigations into the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu.

Several BJP ministers are pressing Mehbooba to hand the case over to the CBI. The police crime branch is investigating the case.