Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 1: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today took oath as new Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir along with 24 Ministers—13 from PDP and 11 from BJP—bringing to an end the 51 days spell of Governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, which had to be imposed in the State on January 8 after caretaker Chief Minister Omar Abdullah refused to continue following fractured mandate thrown by the Assembly results on December 23.
Seventy nine years old Mufti returns to rule the sensitive State of Jammu and Kashmir after over nine years following sudden exit in November 2005 when Congress had appointed Ghulam Nabi Azad as the new Chief Minister on the completion of three years term of Sayeed as the head of PDP-BJP coalition Government.
A total of 17 Cabinet Ministers including the Chief Minister and eight Ministers of State took oath of office and secrecy this morning at Zorawar Singh auditorium amidst tight security arrangements in the presence of top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, party veterans Lal Krishan Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Shahnawaz Hussain, Ram Lal, Ram Madhav, Avinash Rai Khanna, Jugal Kishore Sharma and Thupstan Chhewang among others. PDP veterans and Lok Sabha MPs Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Tariq Hamid Qarra were also present.
Of 17 Cabinet Ministers, the PDP got away with lion’s share of 11 including the Chief Minister while BJP got five and one Cabinet Ministry went to BJP’s pre-poll ally Sajjad Lone, a separatist turned mainstream politician of People’s Conference. Of eight Ministers of State, BJP got five and PDP three.
Governor NN Vohra, who ruled the State for second time for 51 days (his first rule being from July 11, 2008 to January 5, 2009 lasting 178 days) administered oath of office and secrecy to the Chief Minister and the Ministers. With today’s swearing-in, the first ever PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir has exhausted the maximum limit of 25 Ministers as per the provisions of the State Constitution, which means there will be no further expansion of the Ministry unless some Ministers were dropped.
The Governor issued proclamation after swearing-in ceremony ending the spell of Governor’s rule in the State. He also issued another order designating Dr Nirmal Singh as the Deputy Chief Minister.
The Ministers, who took oath as Cabinet Ministers included Mufti Mohammad Sayeed (Chief Minister), Abdul Rehman Bhat Veeri, Javed Mustafa Mir, Abdul Haq Khan, Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, Dr Haseeb Drabu, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjoora, Syed Altaf Bukhari, Imran Raza Ansari and Naeem Akhter (all PDP), Dr Nirmal Singh, Chander Prakash Ganga, Choudhary Lal Singh, Bali Bhagat and Sukhnandan Kumar Choudhary (all BJP) and Sajjad Lone (People’s Conference), who was taken as the Minister from the BJP quota.
The Ministers of State included Chering Dorjey, Sunil Sharma, Abdul Gani Kohli, Priya Sethi (all BJP) and Pawan Gupta (Independent MLA from Udhampur, who also took oath from the BJP quota), Abdul Majid Paddar, Mohammad Ashraf Mir and Asiya Naqash (all PDP).
There were two women Ministers—one each from BJP (Priya Sethi) and PDP (Asiya Naqash). Out of total 25 Ministers, 23 are members of the Assembly while only two (Naeem Akhter-PDP and Chering Dorjey—BJP) were members of Legislative Council. Priya Sethi, who was not a member of the any House, was nominated to the Assembly tonight by the Governor on recommendations of the Government. The Governor has powers to nominate two women to the Assembly for a term of 6 years on recommendations of the Chief Minister.
Of 25 Ministers including the Chief Minister, 14 belonged to Kashmir region (13 from PDP and one Sajjad Lone), 10 to Jammu (9 from BJP and one PDP) and one from Ladakh (BJP). However like previous Cong-NC coalition, the PDP-BJP Government has also not given representation to Sikhs and Kashmiri Pandits in the Government.
Out of 24 Ministers in Mufti Sayeed Ministry, 21 have joined the Government for the first time. Only Abdul Rehman Veeri and Javed Mustafa Mir, the two PDP MLAs, who were inducted as Cabinet Ministers today, had served as Ministers of State for Home and Power respectively during 2002 PDP-Congress regime while BJP MLA Choudhary Lal Singh was Cabinet Minister for Health and Family Welfare in Mufti Sayeed Government from 2002 to 2004 as Congress leader before he quit the Government to contest Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and was elected as MP for two successive terms.
All other 21 Ministers of PDP and BJP have joined the Government for the first time.
BJP sources said Kavinder Gupta, MLA Gandhi Nagar, who didn’t find a Cabinet berth, was likely to be elected as the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly while the PDP will get the post of Legislative Council Chairman. Sartaj Madni, who had won two consecutive elections in 2002 and 2008 in the Assembly elections before losing in 2014 and was Deputy Speaker in the previous Assembly, is being considered for the post of the Chairman after his nomination to the Council. The post of the Deputy Chairman in the Council can go to the BJP. The PDP-BJP coalition, however, may offer post of the Deputy Speaker to the National Conference, which will be main opposition party in the Assembly just as the NC-Congress had given the post to the PDP in the previous Assembly.
Mufti Sayeed returned as the Chief Minister after a gap of over nine years. He had to quit on November 2, 2005 after Congress decided to rotate the Chief Ministership after three years and appointed Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Chief Minister. Mufti had served as Home Minister in VP Singh Government in 1989. Prior to that, he was Minister in Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi Governments.
Though this is second stint of the PDP in power, which was formed by Mufti Sayeed in 1998 after parting ways with the Congress, this is for the first time that the BJP is sharing power in Jammu and Kashmir after it had created history by winning 25 seats and becoming second largest party behind PDP’s 28 leaving NC and Congress, the previous coalition partners, way behind with 15 and 12 seats respectively.
The previous highest tally of BJP was 11 in 2008 after being reduced to just one in 2002 after getting eight in 1996.
The BJP’s choice of Ministers and representation to the areas has surprised many political observers.
Of five Cabinet Ministers of the BJP, two belonged to Kathua district alone (Dr Nirmal Singh and Lal Singh) while Sukhnandan Kumar Choudhary and Bali Bhagat belonged to two neighbouring constituencies of Jammu district (Marh and Raipur-Domana) and Chander Prakash Ganga represents Vijaypur segment in Samba district, bordering Jammu.
Contrary to this, BJP gave just one Minister of State (Sunil Sharma) to Chenab Valley (erstwhile Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts), which had given the party four out of six Assembly seats.
Similarly, despite having four MLAs from six seats in Udhampur-Reasi belt, the BJP gave just one MoS berth in the form of Pawan Gupta to both the districts. Almost similar was the case in border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, where BJP gave one Ministry of MoS to Abdul Ghani Kohli, the lone Muslim MLA in the BJP from Kalakote. Like Sukhnandan and Bali, Nirmal and Lal Singh also belonged to two neighbouring Assembly segments of Billawar and Basohli respectively.
In the previous regime, the NC-Congress, which had all six MLAs of Chenab Valley, had given three Ministries there—one in the Cabinet rank (Abdul Majeed Wani) and two MoS with Independent charge (Sajjad Kitchloo and Vikar Rasool Wani).
The observers were of the view that to maintain party’s hold in Chenab Valley, Udhampur-Reasi and border belt of Rajouri and Poonch, the BJP should have given at least one Cabinet Ministry to each region. Instead it gave two Cabinet Ministries each to Jammu and Kathua districts while backward areas and rural districts were given the MoS only.
In entire Ladakh region, the BJP-PDP combine gave just one Ministry and that too the MoS (Chering Dorjey), who was recently elected as the MLA. Though Independent MLA from Zanskar in Kargil district of Ladakh region, Bakir Hussain Rizvi had sided with the PDP, he was not inducted in the Council of Ministry.
The observers also expressed surprise over PDP getting away with lion’s share of 11 Cabinet Ministers as against just five of BJP and a total of 14 Ministries as compared to 11 of BJP (including Sajjad Lone and Pawan Gupta) notwithstanding that both PDP and BJP have reached the number of 28 MLAs each as Sajjad Lone (whose party has two MLAs) and Pawan Gupta (Independent) were made the Ministers from the BJP quota.
There was strong resentment among the people of Jammu region, who had given 25 out of a total of 37 seats to the BJP on what they called “surrender by the BJP before the PDP’’ by giving away 11 Cabinet berths to the PDP and taking only 5 for it and one for its ally Sajjad Lone. With support of Lone’s two MLAs and Independent Pawan Gupta, PDP and BJP now have equal number of 28 MLAs in the Assembly.
“It’s a complete sell out to the PDP. The Congress with 17 MLAs as against NC’s 28 had taken equal Cabinet berths and Ministries, Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council seats but BJP with equal number of MLAs took just one Rajya Sabha seat and only four MLC seats as against five to six of PDP. Now, the BJP has taken just six Cabinet berths and given 11 to PDP,’’ they regretted.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top brass of BJP including party president Amit Shah and veteran leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, MoS in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, Ram Lal and Ram Madhav joined the swearing-in ceremony. Modi reached Jammu at 10.45 am and was at the venue of oath ceremony around 11.10 am.
However, the Prime Minister and other top party leaders returned to New Delhi around 12.30 pm. Governor NN Vohra, who received the Prime Minister, saw off him along with Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at the airport. Advani and Joshi had done a lot to nurture the BJP and develop Jammu and Kashmir during their tenure as party presidents and as Ministers in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government.
Meanwhile, out of 25 Ministers including the Chief Minister, 21 have joined the Council of Ministry for the first time with several of them even getting the Cabinet Ministry. While Mufti Sayeed comes with rich experience of serving at Union Government and State Chief Minister earlier also, two PDP cabinet Ministers—Abdul Rehman Veeri and Javed Mustafa Mir were Ministers of State for Home and Power respectively in 2002 PDP-Congress coalition Government. Veeri has been elected to the Assembly for fourth consecutive term from Bijbehara, Mir has made hat-trick from Chadoora.
Lal Singh is the only BJP Minister, who had earlier served in the Council of Ministry with Health and Medical Education portfolio under Mufti Sayeed in 2002 as Congress MLA but only for two years as he had quit the Government to contest Lok Sabha elections, which he won for two terms in 2004 and 2009 before being denied mandate by the Congress in 2014 for Udhampur-Doda seat after which he switched over to BJP.
Dr Nirmal Singh, who was designated as the Deputy Chief Minister, has won first ever election of his political career from Billawar Assembly seat to become MLA for the first time. Dr Singh had defeated former Minister Dr Manohar Lal Sharma. Earlier, he had contested Lok Sabha and Assembly elections but couldn’t make it to either of the House. BJP’s Chander Prakash Ganga is also first time MLA from Vijaypur having failed to make it to the Assembly in 2002 and 2008. He had defeated NC strongman and former Minister Surjit Singh Slathia in the recent Assembly elections.
Sukhnandan Kumar Choudhary is lone BJP MLA in the Ministry, who has won the election for second straight term from Marh defeating another former Minister Ajay Sadhotra. Bali Bhagat, BJP MLA from Domana, is also making it to the Assembly for second time but after two breaks. He had won the election from Ramban (Reserve) seat in 1996 but lost in 2002 and 2008. He shifted his constituency to Domana this time and won.
People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone has become the Cabinet Minister from the BJP quota as he was BJP’s pre-poll ally. He is also first time MLA from Handwara having unsuccessfully tried his luck in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. His party has two seats in the Assembly.
Of five MoS of BJP, Chering Dorjey had recently been elected as MLC having lost the election to Rigzin Jora of Congress in Leh. He had won Leh seat in 1996 as Congress MLA. Pawan Gupta had won Udhampur seat as an Independent candidate defying Modi wave after being denied the BJP mandate. He is lone Independent inducted as Minister from the BJP quota.
Abdul Gani Kohli is lone Muslim BJP MLA among 25, who had won Kalakote seat in Rajouri district while Sunil Sharma, who had kept the BJP flag aloft in Chenab Valley even during peak of militancy, also won Kishtwar seat for the first time defeating NC’s two times MLA and former Minister Sajjad Kitchloo in his traditional bastion of Kishtwar.
Priya Sethi is lone woman Minister from BJP. Her husband Yudhvir Sethi was strong contender for MLA seat in Jammu East but was denied the mandate. Mrs Sethi had earlier served as Corporator.
PDP’s Abdul Haq Khan (MLA Lolab), Basharat Bukhari (MLA Sangrama) and Choudhary Zulfikar (MLA Darhal), who gained Cabinet berth, have won the election for second consecutive term. They had played effective role of opposition along with others in the previous Government.
However, Dr Haseeb Drabu (MLA Rajpora), widely believed to be the next Finance Minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjoora (MLA Charar-i-Sharief), Syed Altaf Bukhari (MLA Amirakadal) and Imran Raza Ansari (MLA Pattan) were first time MLAs while Naeem Akhter is the MLC). Hanjoora had earlier served as Legislative Council Chairman. He had ended unending victory run of NC veteran Abdul Rahim Rather in Charar-i-Sharief in the last election. Dr Drabu was Economic Advisor to J&K Government and J&K Bank Chairman from 2002 to 2008.
Imran Raza Ansari is son of late veteran political personality Moulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari.
Naeem Akhter played significant role in the party as chief spokesperson during PDP-BJP negotiations. He had taken voluntary retirement as bureaucrat in 2009 to join PDP and is presently member of the Upper House.
In fact, Nayeem Akhter and Chering Dorjey (BJP) are only two members of the Legislative Council, who have secured Ministerial berth.
PDP has only three Ministers of State including Mohammad Ashraf Mir (MLA Sonwar), Abdul Majid Paddar (MLA Noorabad) and Asiya Naqash (MLA Hazratbal).
Ashraf Mir, a former MLC, had defeated former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at Sonwar while Paddar had defeated former Social Welfare Minister Sakina Itoo at Noorabad. Asiya Naqash, like Priya Sethi of BJP, is lone woman Minister from PDP.
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