Mufti being sworn in as Chief Minister alongwith 24 Ministers today

·        PDP gets lion’s share of CM, 14 Ministers, Chairman LC

·        Modi, Advani, Joshi, Azad, Omar attending oath-taking at Jammu varsity

·        Sajjad in but Naeem unlikely to take oath due to influenza

 

By Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

March 1, 2015

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Jammu: Peoples Democratic Party founder-patron, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, who in the past has functioned as the State Chief Minister and Union Home Minister, would be sworn in as the twelfth Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and head of the PDP-BJP coalition government here on Sunday by Governor Narendra Nath Vohra even as the Peoples Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone has staged his comeback and PDP’s MLC Naeem Akhtar was unlikely to take the oath due to illness.

Highly placed official and political sources told this correspondent that arrangements had been put in place for oath-taking of the entire 25-member Council of Ministers at General Zorawar Stadium of the University of Jammu. Only one of them, namely Naeem Akhtar Andrabi, PDP’s chief spokesperson and MLC, was unlikely to take oath on Sunday as he had contracted influenza and doctors had advised him complete bed rest and medication.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior BJP leader and former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi besides senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Parliament Ghulam Nabi Azad, Haryana Chief Minister M.L. Khattar and the National Conference acting president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah would be present on the occasion. Officials did not confirm media reports about the participation of the Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, J.P. Nadda and Smriti Irani, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and the BJP President Amit Shah.

PDP GETS LION’S SHARE: CM, 14 MINISTERS

In the wake of intense lobbying and hectic political developments, PDP on Saturday managed to lay hands on 14 Ministerial berths in addition to the top posts of Chief Minister and Chairman Legislative Council. As exclusively reported by Authint Mail earlier this week, Mufti’s brother-in-law and former MLA of Devsar, Mohammad Sartaj Madni, who in the November 2014 Assembly elections lost to Congress candidate Amin Bhat, is tipped to be nominated one among the eight MLCs and subsequently elected as Chairman of Legislative Council. PDP and BJP will get four each of the nominated MLCs.

PDP TEAM OF MINISTERS

Informed sources identified the 10 PDP legislators, who would be all sworn in as Cabinet Ministers, as MLA Chrar-e-Sharief and former Chairman of Legislative Council Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, MLA Bijbehara and former Minister of State Abdul Rehman Veeri, MLA Chadoura and former MoS Javed Mustafa Mir, MLA Lolab Abdul Haq Khan, MLA Sangrama Syed Basharat Bukhari, MLA Darhal Choudhary Zulfikar besides the first time MLAs Haseeb Drabu (Rajpora), Syed Altaf Bukhari (Amirakadal) and Imran Raza Ansari (Pattan).

MLA Sonwar Mohammad Ashraf Mir, MLA Hazratbal Asea Naqash, MLA Noorabad Abdul Majid Paddar and MLA Zanskar (PDP’s associate member) Syed Mohammad Bakir Rizvi would be inducted as Ministers of State.

SAJJAD BACK AFTER HIGH DRAMA

Sources associated with the government formation disclosed to Authint Mail that PC’s Chairman and MLA of Handwara Sajjad Lone staged his comeback a day after it was communicated to him “regretfully” by a senior BJP leader from New Delhi that he could not be inducted in Mufti’s Council of Ministers. According to these sources, an upset Lone established contact with the “senior most level” in the BJP and expressed resentment over the way he had been “ditched and humiliated under pressure of my political detractors”.

Hours after his early morning telephonic conversation with New Delhi, BJP high command decided that a party of two “valued MLAs”, which had a pre-poll arrangement with the BJP, could not be sacrificed for the pleasure of a party of the post-poll relationship with the BJP. After a clear-cut reassurance to him, Sajjad Lone left his Srinagar home for Jammu by car at 7.00 p.m.

BJP TEAM

Sources said that BJP would now get a total of 9 Ministers, including associate Sajjad Lone, and all of them would be inducted into the Cabinet. Till late on Saturday, in the BJP camp there was a tie for the Speaker’s post between MLA Raipur-Domana Bali Bhagat and MLA Basohli Choudhary Lal Singh, with either of them insisting to get Cabinet berth.

While Dr Nirmal Singh would be inducted as Deputy Chief Minister, one among Lal Singh and Bali Bhagat would be inducted as Cabinet Minister and another as Speaker. Others being sworn in as the Cabinet Ministers include MLA Gandhi Nagar Kavinder Gupta, MLA Suchetgarh Choudhary Sham Lal and MLA Kishtwar Sunil Kumar Sharma. Name of the BJP’s only Muslim MLA Abdul Gani Kohli and a former rebel, Pawan Gupta, who contested as an Independent candidate and defeated BJP’s official candidate in Udhampur in the recent Assembly elections, were also considered and probably finalised for the Cabinet.

2 WOMEN BEING NOMINATED AS MLAs

After considering half-a-dozen aspirants, PDP and BJP have finally decided to recommend the names of Ms. S. Fazili alias Mezi and Priya Seth for nomination as MLAs to the Raj Bhawan immediately after the oath-taking on Sunday. Sources said that on Chief Minister’s recommendation, Governor would declare the two women as nominated MLAs. Thereafter, both of them could vote in the March 2^nd election on four vacant seats of Legislative Council in Jammu division and two vacant seats in Kashmir division.

END