Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari is a well-known leader from Jammu and Kashmir. He is the president of Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, which he launched in 2020. Bukhari served as a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from 2015 to 2018, representing the Amira Kadal Assembly Constituency. He served as the Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and later held the additional responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Employment. Altaf Bukhari, president of Apni Party, received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from the Government Agricultural College at Vadura-Sopore through the University of Kashmir in 1980.
His father, Syed Mohammad Iqbal Bukhari, was a well-known businessman and founder of FIL Industries. In 2014, Altaf Bukhari won the assembly elections from Amira Kadal Assembly constituency representing the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party. Subsequently, in 2015, Altaf Bukhari was appointed as the Minister of Roads and Buildings in the PDP-BJP coalition led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He also served as the Minister of Floriculture, Horticulture and Parks in the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed ministry. However, when Mehbooba Mufti took over after Sayeed’s demise in 2016, Bukhari was not included in the cabinet.
In February 2017, Bukhari was appointed Education Minister in the government. Later in March 2018, he was given additional responsibility of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour and Employment in the state government. When the BJP-PDP coalition government dissolved in June 2018, Altaf Bukhari emerged as the consensus candidate for Chief Minister in November 2018, supported by the PDP, Congress and Jammu and Kashmir National Conference. He formed his own party named Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party on 8 March 2020, almost a year after being expelled from the PDP. He is currently provided with Z+ level security by the government.
