Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir got its first woman chief minister today in PDP President Mehbooba Mufti who was sworn-in here along
with 22 ministers, with an increased strength for BJP in the Cabinet.
Dressed in black, 56-year-old Mehbooba took the oath of office and
secrecy in Urdu followed by BJP’s Nirmal Singh, who will again be
the Deputy Chief Minister in the new PDP-BJP government formed three
months after the state was put under Governor’s rule following the
demise of her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Governor N N Vohra also administered the oath to 22 other Ministers.
Eleven PDP and as many BJP MLAs took oath of office and secrecy at Raj Bhavan.
PDP team includes Abdul Rahman Veri, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Abdul Haq Khan, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Dr Haseeb Drabu, Chaudhary Zulfiqar Ali, Syed Naeem Akhtar, Imran Raza Ansari, Aasiya Naqash, Syed Farooq Ahmad Andrabi, Zahoor Ahmad Mir.
Team BJP hasNirmal Singh, Chander Prakash, Bali Baghat, Lal Singh, Tsering Dorjee, Sham Lal Chaudhary, Abdul Gani Kohli, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Priya Sethi, Ajay Nanda.
Sajad Gani Lone also took oath of office and secrecy as a minister from BJP quota.
Also, Mohammad Ashraf Mir and Abdul Majid Padder were the two ministers of state who seem to have been dropped this time.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dropped four leaders from the council of ministers in the previous Mufti Sayeed-led government while two new faces have made to the new dispensation.
Former Works Minister Altaf Bukhari and Javed Mustafa Mir were not sworn in this time.
Also, Mohammad Ashraf Mir and Abdul Majid Padder were the two ministers of state who seem to have been dropped this time.
PDP has introduced two new faces: Zahoor Mir And Farooq Andrabi.
Ally BJP dropped has two ministers: Former Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sukhnandan Kumar and MoS Pawan Gupta.
They seem to have been replaced by Choudhary Sham Lal and Ajay Nanda.
The strength of council of ministers has been reduced to 23 from its earlier size of 25.
Former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar, Union Ministers
Venkaiah Naidu and Jitendra Singh were among the host of VIPs present
at the function held at Raj Bhavan.
However, PDP MP Tariq Hamid Karra and Congress boycotted the ceremony.
Mehbooba assuming office as 13th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
is a landmark event in the history of the state and the country.
She is the first woman to head the state and the second Muslim woman
to become the Chief Minister of any state in India.
Syeda Anwara Taimur was the first Muslim woman CM in Assam in 1980
and continued to hold the chair till June 30, 1981.
The new government has also retained two woman ministers
from the earlier coalition— Priya Seth (BJP) and Asiya Nakash (PDP).
BJP’s Lal Singh took oath in Punjabi while Dorje chose English.
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