In the first major reshuffle in chief minister Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet Monday, Kavinder Gupta was sworn in here as deputy chief minister in the government. Mufti allocated the portfolios to newly inducted ministers. Induction of Muhammad Khalil Band in the council of ministers is seen as a move by the party to replace former finance minister HaseebDrabu from Pulwama district.
The BJP leader Gupta, who was elected from Gandhi Nagar constituency in 2014 elections was Speaker in the state legislative Assembly and has a strong affiliation with Hindu nationalist RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh or RSS.
Six other legislators took oath of office and secrecy and a junior minister was elevated to cabinet rank.
Gupta, the first time legislator replaced Nirmal Singh who was asked by BJP high command to resign Sunday evening as part of the saffron party’s revamp exercise following a gruesome incident of rape and murder of a Bakerwal child in Kathua.
“I’ll try my best to meet expectations of people and work for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh,” Gupta said.
“We had entered into an alliance, following people’s mandate. I hope it keeps working for them.”
The BJP was shamed after two of its ministers, Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga were ousted from Mufti’s cabinet over their support to the accused in the Kathua case.
However, the party brought in Rajiv Jasrotia, its MLA from Kathua and a native of Hiranagar into the cabinet.
Jasrotia was also accused of participating in the Hindu EktaMAnch rally in support of the accused in Kathua that forced the ouster of its two ministers necessitating Monday’s reshuffle.
Governor NarinderNath Vohra also administered the oath of office and secrecy to MLA Jammu West and BJP state president Sat Sharma.
Davinder Kumar Manyal, MLA Samba was inducted into the cabinet following resignation of Bali Bhagat, who was also asked to step down by the party high command over ‘underperformance’.
Legislator from Kishtwar and junior in the government, Sunil Sharma got promoted to cabinet rank, while MLA Doda, Shakti Parihar took oath as a junior minister to ensure representation to Chenab valley area.
The reshuffle also brought two PDP legislators, Mohammad Khalil Band (Pulwama) and Mohd Ashraf Mir (Sonawar) into the cabinet.
Band apparently replaced HaseebDrabu, who was also ousted as finance minister following his controversial remarks about Kashmir issue in Delhi.
Mir apparently replaced Abdul Haq Khan, who was the law minister before the reshuffle.
The swearing-in ceremony was held at the convention centre instead of Raj Bhavan as the government has already shut office in Jammu before its scheduled opening in summer capital Srinagar May 7.
The BJP’s decision to revamp the ministerial team comes amidst adverse reports by local RSS and BJP leaders about perception of its performance in Jammu.
Monday’s reshuffle follows earlier expansion in the cabinet when chief minister’s younger brother Tassaduq Mufti, MLA Chadoora, Javaid Mustafa Mir and Srinagar’s Amirakadal legislator Syed AltafBukhari, all from PDP, were inducted.
The number of ministers in the coalition government has now gone up to 25, the maximum permissible limit in the council of ministers.
The state constitution does not allow the strength in the council of ministers to exceed 20 percent of the legislature – 89 MLAs and 36 MLCs.