Mufti, 12 Cabinet Ministers being sworn in on Sunday

Tie between Basharat Bukhari, Bali Bhagat on Speaker’s chair

Hinna Bhat, Nayeema Mehjoor being nominated as MLAs



Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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Jammu, Feb 26: Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s 13-member Cabinet would take the oath of office and secrecy at Jammu University’s Zorawar Singh Auditorium at 11.00 a.m. on Sunday---in two days of the Peoples Democratic Party patron’s much hyped meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Jammu and Kashmir would witness a flurry of political and bureaucratic activity Friday through Sunday as the coalition allies PDP and BJP would be formally electing Mufti and Dr Nirmal Singh respectively as their leaders in Legislature and two women----PDP’s Nayeema Mehjoor and BJP’s Dr Hinna Bhat---would be nominated as MLAs on Sunday to enable them vote for the coalition candidates in the election on six vacancies of Legislative Council on Monday.

A team of senior SPG officials headed by an IGP is arriving in the State’s winter capital on Friday exactly when Mufti would be holding a high profile meeting with the Prime Minister in New Delhi. Highly placed security officials said that the SPG team would visit the venue of the swearing-in ceremony at the Jammu University and take a review of the security arrangements related to the PM’s visit. That makes it clear that Mr Modi would be the chief guest at Mufti’s oath-taking event even as an official confirmation from the PMO was still awaited. However, highly placed bureaucratic sources in New Delhi revealed to Authint Mail that Mr Modi alongwith Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh and all others Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members would attend the ceremony on March 1.

On Friday afternoon or latest by Saturday, PDP and BJP legislature committees would meet separately in Jammu and complete the formality of electing Mufti and Dr Nirmal Singh respectively as their leaders in the 89-member House. This would pave the way for Mufti’s oath taking as Chief Minister. Dr Singh, however, would take oath as a Minister in the Cabinet and later designated as ‘Deputy Chief Minister’ as that position does not exist in Jammu and Kashmir Constitution.

SAJJAD LONE AMONG 12 CABINET MINISTERS

Highly placed sources revealed to Authint Mail that the PDP team of the Cabinet Ministers would include chief spokesperson and MLC Naeem Akhtar Andrabi, MLA Rajpora and former Chairman of J&K Bank Haseeb Drabu, MLA Bijbehara Abdul Rehman Veeri, MLA Lolab Abdul Haq Khan, MLA Amirakadal Syed Altaf Bukhari and MLA Darhal Choudhary Zulfikar. In case the coalition partners agree on oath taking of seven or eight ministers of either side on Sunday, which was under consideration till late on Thursday, PDP’s MLA of Pattan and young Shia leader Imran Raza Ansari and MLA Chadoura Javed Mustafa Mir could also be sworn in on March 1.

Sources said that one among MLA Hazratbal Asea Naqash and MLA Sonwar Mohammad Ashraf Mir, one among MLA Noorabad Abdul Majeed Paddar and MLA Pulwama Mohammad Khalil Bandh, besides MLA from Zanskar Syed Mohammad Baqir Rizvi, would be inducted as Ministers of State in the PDP quota subsequently.

In the PDP team, Altaf Bukhari, Haseeb Drabu and Imran Ansari are the debutant MLAs while as Abdul Haq Khan, Javed Mustafa Mir, Abdul Rehman Veeri and Choudhary Zulfikar have been PDP’s MLAs in the past for one or more terms. Mr Veeri has served as Minister of State for Home and Javed Mustafa as MoS Power in the 2002-2008 PDP-Congress government when Mufti and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad functioned as Chief Ministers by rotation.

BASHARAT BUKHARI, BALI BHAGAT FRONT-RUNNERS FOR SPEAKER’S CHAIR

Sources said that PDP’s second-time MLA from Sangrama Syed Basharat Bukhari and BJP’s MLA from Raipur-Domana Bali Bhagat were the top contenders for the post of Speaker of Legislative Assembly. In case Bukhari for PDP gets Speakership, the coveted post of Chairman Legislative Council would go to the BJP. However, if PDP prefers Chairman’s post between the two, Mufti’s brother-in-law and former two-time MLA of Devsar Mohammad Sartaj Madani, who lost to Congress party’s Mohammad Amin Bhat in the third election in 2014, could be one among the four nominated MLCs of PDP quota and obviously the new Chairman of Upper House. Madni has also served as Deputy Speaker in Assembly. In the event of this settlement, BJP’s Bali Bhagat, who was MLA from Ramban in 1996-2002, could be the new Speaker.

NAYEEMA, HINNA BEING NOMINATED AS MLAs

According to these sources, BBC’s and Akashvani’s former broadcaster Nayeema Ahmad Mehjoor, who has joined PDP last year, and dental surgeon-turned-BJP activist Dr Hinna Bhat, who lost to PDP’s Altaf Bukhari in Amirakadal in recent Assembly elections, would be recommended by Chief Minister as nominated MLAs and Governor N.N. Vohra would issue a notification on Sunday afternoon. This would enable the two nominated MLAs to cast their vote in favour of the ruling coalition candidates in the Legislative Council election on four seats in Jammu and two seats in Kashmir divisions being held on March 2.

Induction of Ms Mehjoor and Ms Bhat would take the number of the coalition members and their allies to 59. While as the PDP-BJP combine could clearly bag three of the four Jammu seats, Opposition National Conference-Congress alliance candidate Sajjad Kichloo is tipped to win the fourth seat with the advantage of 27 to 30 members.

In the only crucial contest on the two Kashmir seats, PDP’s Saifuddin Bhat is likely to get 30 ‘First Preference’ votes of the ruling coalition. In case, NC-Congress succeeds to get 30 seats---including those of CPM’s Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, PDF’s Hakeem Yasin and independent MLA Engineer Rashid---like in the recent Rajya Sabha election when Ghulam Nabi Azad was elected, NC’s Qaisar Jamsheed Lone would be the winner on the second seat. However, if the ruling coalition got the two women activists nominated as MLAs and also engineers abstention of Rashid or Hakeem, there could be a tie between the ruling coalition’s Mirchal and NC’s Jamsheed Lone which would be broken by draw of lots. But if both Rashid and Hakeem abstain, both the seats would be bagged by the PDP.

BJP's CABINET TEAM

While as Dr Nirmal Singh, a retired professor of Jammu University, is tipped to be the Deputy Chief Minister, others being inducted into the Cabinet include former State Health Minister Lal Singh, MLA of Gandhi Nagar Kavinder Gupta, MLA of Kishtwar Sunil Kumar Sharma, MLA of Suchetgarh Choudhary Sham Lal besides Pawan Gupta, a BJP rebel who contested and won as an independent candidate in Udhampur.

Peoples Conference chairman and MLA of Handwara Sajjad Gani Lone is also tipped to be inducted as a Cabinet Minister in the BJP quota. One of the senior BJP leaders said that his party would get an additional Cabinet berth in case the Speaker’s chair would be conceded to PDP even as almost everything was being shared on “fifty fifty basis".

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