Omar Abdullah expands Cabinet, inducts four NC MLAs

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday expanded and reshuffled the Council of Ministers to its maximum permitted strength of nine, inducting four National Conference (NC) legislators from the Kashmir Valley.

However, the expansion immediately drew sharp reactions from within the National Conference and the BJP. Farooq Abdullah called the change a positive step to address people’s difficulties.  They (ministers) will work and try to ease the difficulties and problems of the people, he added.

The new team, headed by CM Omar Abdullah, clearly had the stamp of party President Farooq Abdullah, as none of Omar’s close aides, considered frontrunners in the race, made it to the final list. The Congress, an alliance partner, declined to join the ministry, reiterating its position that it will not accept cabinet berths until full statehood is restored to J&K. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office and secrecy to four new ministers at Lok Bhawan in Srinagar.

The four new ministers are Ali Mohammad Sagar (Khanyar, seven-time MLA and senior NC leader, who took the oath in Urdu), Mir Saifullah (Trehgam), Shameema Firdous (Habba Kadal/Habbakadal, NC women’s wing president and the second woman in the cabinet after Sakina Itoo), and Altaf Ahmad Wani (Pahalgam). The cabinet dropped independent MLA Satish Sharma (Chhamb, Jammu), who held the Sports and Technical Education portfolio.

The expansion has also shifted the balance of the cabinet in the two-year-old Government heavily towards the valley. Seven ministers in the now 9-member council hail from Kashmir, while Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Chaudhary and Javaid Rana remain the only two representatives from the Jammu region.

Minutes before the oath ceremony, six-time MLA and former Speaker Mubarak Gul expressed disappointment, stating he had attended numerous oath ceremonies and been dropped each time. Gul supporters also staged a protest outside the party headquarters at Nawa-e-Subah, raising slogans. To address the discontent, NC president Farooq Abdullah rushed to the party headquarters and nominated Gul as the party’s new general secretary, replacing Sagar.

Senior NC legislator Abdul Majid Larmi also expressed hurt, saying his name had been in consideration earlier and that he was senior to one of the inductees. “After all, we are human beings. The heart naturally hurts; there is no doubt about that. Here I am talking to you, but from inside, my heart is burning,” an emotional Larmi said, adding that he accepted the leadership’s decision.

The BJP criticised Omar Abdullah over “regional and cultural imbalance.” Leader of the Opposition Sunil Sharma said this was the first time such an imbalance had been seen and that Governments must take every region and community along.

Speaking to reporters after the oath ceremony, Sharma said he would stand by legislators left out of the Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet, adding that he would wipe the tears of those who missed out on ministerial berths.

Sharma said he hoped the newly sworn-in ministers would work sincerely for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and focus on public issues rather than political disputes. The Cabinet previously had six members, including the Chief Minister; all incumbents had submitted resignations to facilitate the reshuffle. Under Union Territory rules, the Council of Ministers is capped at 10 per cent of the 90-member Assembly.

NC leaders, including newly inducted minister Mir Saifullah and others, defended the decisions as reflecting available berths, regional representation within limits, and party consensus, describing the organisation as a family.