PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has finally cleared all hurdles in her way before becoming the first-ever woman Chief Minister of the Muslim majority State of Jammu & Kashmir.
The swearing-in ceremony of the 56-year-old mercurial leader is scheduled to take place on the sprawling lawns of State Raj Bhavan here in the winter capital on Monday.
From the BJP’s side Nirmal Singh is set to take oath of office as Deputy Chief Minister for the second time.
Formation of BJP-PDP alliance Government would bring curtains down on the three-month-long Governor’s Rule in the State which
witnessed many historic developments, especially for the welfare of the masses and flood victims.
The State was reeling under Governors Rule since January 8 after the sudden demise of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in AIIMS on January 7.
In their second innings, both the leaders will have to do a tight rope walk to strike a balance between the two distinct regions of the State in order to fulfil the aspirations of the people of all three regions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had previously attended the swearing-in ceremony of the Mufti Mohd Sayeed along with top brass of the BJP is expected to skip the event due to prior commitments in the poll-bound States of Assam and West Bengal.
In their absence Union Ministers Venkaiah Naidu and MoS PMO Jitendra Singh are expected to attend the low-key affair.
Mehbooba Mufti would be accepting the most challenging assignment of her long political career in the presence of her arch rival Omar Abdullah. She herself extended an invitation to the working president of the National Conference and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to become witness to the historic occasion.
Responding to the invite Omar on Saturday tweeted, “very gracious of Mehbooba Mufti sahiba to phone & invite me to her oath taking ceremony. I look forward to being there on the 4th”.
The PDP leader has also invited top brass of the Congress Party. leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and other senior Congress leaders are expected to attend the ceremony to greet Mehbooba Mufti.
Meanwhile, there was no clarity on the distribution of portfolios between the two alliance partners till late on Saturday evening.
The BJP has made it clear to the PDP leadership during several rounds of closed door deliberations, that they were eyeing equal and fair distribution of key portfolios between the alliance partners as they both have equal number of legislators in their kitty.
Though PDP is expected to retain most of the faces in the new Council of Ministers BJP was still holding discussions within the party and expected to drop few old faces to give opportunity to young turks in the party.
A section of State BJP leaders who were sidelined in the previous dispensation have also asserted their position within the party and trying to extract their pound of flesh.
Dr Nirmal Singh on saturday told reporters, “discussions were still going on to finalise and assess the performance of the former Ministers before finalising the list ahead of oath ceremony on Monday”. He said implementation of the Agenda of Alliance would remain focus of the new Government in office.