Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 23: In first reshuffle in 54 days old PDP-BJP Government, two Ministers of State with Independent Charge will be elevated to Cabinet rank tomorrow taking total number of Cabinet Ministers to 19 including Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and reducing number of Ministers of State from eight to six.
Both Ministers of State, who will be administered oath of office and secrecy tomorrow by Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan at 12 noon tomorrow, belonged to the BJP, official sources said. They are Chering Dorjey and Abdul Ghani Kohli. While Dorjey is member of Legislative Council, Kohli is MLA from Kalakote.
Presently, Dorjey is Minister of State with Independent Charge of Cooperatives and MoS for Ladakh Affairs while Kohli is MoS with Independent Charge of Transport and MoS of Rural Development Department and Horticulture.
According to sources, Dorjey could retain the portfolio of Cooperatives and Kohli Transport after their elevation as the Cabinet Ministers. However, the charge of Rural Development, Horticulture and Ladakh Affairs, which they were holding as Ministers of State, was likely to go to three remaining Ministers of State of the BJP as according to the PDP-BJP understanding the Departments held by PDP Cabinet Ministers would be held by BJP’s Ministers of State while the Departments with BJP Cabinet Ministers would remain with PDP’s Ministers of State.
With tomorrow’s reshuffle, the number of Cabinet Ministers will go up to 19 and Ministers of State will come down to six. The PDP will have 11 Cabinet Ministers including the Chief Minister and BJP eight. Out of six Ministers of State, the PDP and BJP will have three each.
BJP’s Ministers of State-Sunil Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Priya Sethi could share three portfolios of Rural Development, Horticulture and Ladakh Affairs, which will be given up by two Ministers of State being elevated to the Cabinet rank tomorrow.
With tomorrow’s reshuffle, Ladakh will get representation in the Cabinet. Ladakh was the only region, which had no representation in the Cabinet as all Cabinet Ministers so far belonged to Jammu and Kashmir regions. However, the women still would have no representation in the Cabinet as two women in the Council of Ministry-Priya Sethi of BJP and Asiya Naqash of PDP were Ministers of State.
Sources said one of the Ministers being elevated to the Cabinet rank is not happy with his portfolio.
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