Taking everybody by surprise, PDP chief Mehoboba Mufti, who took over as first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, dropped four party ministers including a senior leader.
Mehbooba dropped Altaf Bukhari and Javed Mustafa Mir, who were cabinet ministers in late Mufti Sayeed’s 10 month long government. Both are senior leaders.
Bukhari is party treasurer and represents Amira Kadal constituency in Assembly while Javed Mustafa Mir represents Chadoora constituency. He won three elections in a row from Chadoora.
Besides, Mehbooba also dropped two former MoS in Mufti-Sayeed’s cabinet – Mohammad Ashraf Mir and Abdul Majid Padder.
Mir had defeated former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah from Sonawar constituency in Srinagar.
Sources said Mehbooba dropped Bukhari for his closeness to BJP camp during the over two month long stalemate on government formation between allies PDP and BJP in the State.
They said Mehbooba was not happy with his behavior and “in order to maintain discipline in the party”, she dropped her from the cabinet.
Sources said Bukhari had been conveyed that he would no longer be part of the government.
The new faces inducted by Mehbooba in the cabinet includes Zahoor Ahmad Mir and Syed Farooq Andrabi. Mir is three time MLA while Andrabi is the maternal uncle of Mehbooba.
BJP drops two ministers
The BJP dropped two ministers Sukhnanadan Kumar and Pawan Gupta. Sukhnandan was cabinet minister and Gupta Mos during Mufti Sayeed’s government.
They were replaced by Choudhary Sham Lal and Ajay Nanda.
Sukhnandan represented Marh constituency while Pawan Gupta, who won Udhampur constituency as an independent candidate but later pledged support to the saffron party.
Ministers from PDP
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.
Ministers from BJP
Nirmal Singh, Chander Prakash, Bali Baghat, Lal Singh, Tsering Dorjee, Sham Lal Chaudhary, Abdul Gani Kohli, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Priya Sethi, Ajay Nanda.
Separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajad Gani Lone was also inducted in the cabinet from the BJP quota.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti’s council of ministers today displayed remarkable linguistic diversity as they took oath in as many as five languages, including Kashmiri and Dogri.
However, the majority of ministers, including Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her deputy Dr Nirmal Singh, stuck to Urdu and Hindi language respectively.
Mehbooba, who took oath for any office for the first time, fumbled in the beginning and jumped few words before Governor N N Vohra who administered her oath of office.
Four ministers, including Sajjad Gani Lone of Peoples Conference, Dr Haseeb Drabu (PDP), Tsering Dorjay and Abdul Gani Kohli – both BJP – took oath in English.
Former broadcaster and PDP leader Syed Basharat Ahmed Bukhari surprised everyone when he took oath in Kashmiri language while BJP’s Chowdhury Lal Singh, again, took oath in Dogri language.
Other PDP members, including Abdul Rehman Veeri, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura, Abdul Haq Khan, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, Naeem Akther Andrabi, Imran Raza Anzari, Asiya Naqash, Syed Farooq Andrabi and Zahoor Mir took oath in Urdu.
Imran Raza Ansari and Syed Farooq Andrabi began with ‘Bismillah-e- rahman-i-rahim’. Soon after taking oath, Farooq Andrabi went to guest gallery and took blessings of Gulshan Ara, mother of Mehbooba Mufti and other family members.
BJP ministers Chander Prakash Ganga, Bali Bhagat, Sham Choudhary, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Priya Sethi and Ajay Nanda took oath in Hindi.
Earlier, the 56-year-old Mehbooba came to the venue accompanied by mother Gulshan Ara and brother Tasaduq Mufti.
She wore her signature style light Mehendi colour attire with Kashmiri embroidery on it while her daughters, Irtiqa and Iltija, arrived in separate vehicles. They were wearing similar dresses.
The stage was set up at spacious Raj Bhawan lawn and decorated with Kashmiri ‘crewel curtains’.
