Cabinet may consider MLC nomination list on Monday

·       PDP zeroes in on Sartaj, Shatru, Manhas, Bashir Mir

·       BJP picks up Khajuria, Ajatshatru, Arora, Ambardar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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Jammu, April 4: Cabinet on Monday is likely to consider and sanction a list of eight political leaders---four each from PDP and BJP---for submission to Governor who is expected to accord his approval to their nomination as Members of Legislative Council next week.

Knowledgeable sources on Saturday revealed to Early Times that both the coalition partners, PDP and BJP, have finalised their nomination lists which would go to the Cabinet, most likely as a non-agenda item, during a meeting on April 6^th. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed would preside over the Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet is supposed to consider and sanction the list before its submission to Raj Bhawan for Governor’s approval under Section 50 of J&K Representation of Peoples Act. Following the Governor’s approval, if no question is raised on any nomination, Government is competent to issue an order of appointment.

“If everything runs smoothly, all the eight nominees would be appointed and sworn in as MLCs next week”, said a well-placed political source.

J&K Legislative Council has the strength of 36 members, including Chairman. Of the 36, 22 people are elected by members of J&K Legislative Assembly. Eight more are nominated as Members by Governor on recommendation of the State government. Of them three are supposed to be picked up from the less represented economically weaker sections of the population and five must have contribution to public or social services like medicine, science, technology, media, cooperative service etc.

However, the successive governments have invariably---with few exceptions---picked up the ruling parties’ left-over aspirants, particularly those defeated in the previous Assembly or Lok Sabha elections, for their political rehabilitation. Governor, N.N. Vohra, who accorded approval to the nomination of all the defeated candidates recommended by the previous coalition government, did not raise any objection in 2009.

Remaining six members are elected by rural and urban local bodies, three each from Kashmir and Jammu divisions. Of them, four are elected by Panchayat members---two each from Kashmir and Jammu---and two by municipal corporations, municipal committees and municipal councils (one each from Kashmir and Jammu).

Mufti’s kin may become Chairman LC

Sources said that after facing a great deal of pulls and pressures from different quarters, the PDP high command has finally zeroed in on the two-time MLA from Devsar, Mohammad Sartaj Madni, who also acted as Deputy Speaker of Legislative Assembly during Omar Abdullah’s government. Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s brother-in-law, Madni had lost his third election in 2014 to the Congress candidate and former MLC Mohammad Amin Bhat. Madni is likely to be elected as Chairman of the Upper House as the post of Speaker of Assembly has been conceded by PDP to BJP’s MLA from Gandhi Nagar Kavinder Gupta.

Saifuddin Bhat alias Shatru, a senior political activist who lost the Assembly elections of 2008 and 2014 in Khansahab segment of Budgam to the PDF Chairman Hakeem Mohammad Yasin, Bashir Ahmad Mir of Kangan, who lost the same elections to NC’s Mian Altaf Ahmad, besides writer Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, who has joined PDP after his retirement as Secretary J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, and belongs to Pahari community, are also being recommended by the PDP for nomination as MLCs.

Three of the key contenders---- ex-MLC and ex-MLA Nizamuddin Bhat who lost to the Congress candidate Usman Majeed in Bandipore, bureaucrat-turned-politician Mehboob Iqbal who was defeated by a BJP candidate in Bhaderwah and Dhaman Bhasin---have already been taken off the consideration zone and appointed as PDP’s General Secretaries.

Former Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal and former MLAs Peerdaza Mansoor Hussain and Rafi Ahmad Mir were other contenders for the nomination. Of them, Hussain is likely to be rehabilitated as an aide to Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, according to informed sources, BJP too has finalised its nomination list. Former MLA and former State President Ashok Khajuria, former MLA and ex-Minister of Farooq Abdullah’s government Ajatshatru Singh, RSS activist Surender Ambardar and Ramesh Arora are understood to have been selected by BJP for nomination.

END