Top leaders of the INDIA front, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, are expected to attend as National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah is sworn in as the Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.
In the night of the night to swearThe guessing game of who will be part of Omar’s Cabinet continued. Under the J&K Reorganization Act, the state government can have only nine ministers, including the CM. Omar must ensure representation from both the states of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as several ethnic groups, given the difficulties of UT, in that limited number.
Acknowledging the problem, the NC leader said: “It is a difficult task for Omar sahib to decide who to include in the Cabinet and who to leave out… But he has not discussed with anyone yet.”
Another NC leader called it ‘eik anaar aur sou beemar (There are too many applicants for a share of the pie)’ Omar’s situation.
Sources said the alliance partner Congress, which won only six seats in the Assembly elections, is likely to get one seat in the Cabinet. The party has reportedly not settled on a name, although the candidate is believed to be former J&K party chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
On what needs to be brought together to form the Cabinet, another NC leader said: “Within Jammu, you have three different regions – mainland Jammu, Pir Panjal and Chenab region. Then in the Valley, you have South, North and Central Kashmir… There are also different races like Gujjars, Paharis and Pandits.”
The biggest difficulty is to give the mainland Jammu, which includes the Hindu-dominated districts of Udhampur, Jammu, Kathua and Samba, as no member of the NC-Congress alliance has won here. The main contender for the seat in the district is Satish Sharma, an independent candidate who has extended support to the government.
From Pir Panjal constituency, Javed Rana and Surinder Choudhary are likely to be included in the Cabinet. Rana is credited with turning the NC around in Pir Panjal, with the party bagging six of the eight Assembly seats here, with one going to the Congress.
Moreover, Choudhary won from Nowshera defeating BJP state chief Ravinder Raina.
From the Valley, the former minister Abdul Rahim Rather and Ali Mohammad Sagar are likely to enter the Cabinet. Although the elder Sagar wants the inclusion of his son Salman Sagar, who is also an elected member of parliament, sources said it is unlikely that this would invite claims from other legislators.
Omar is scheduled to take oath on Wednesday afternoon at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Center (SKICC) on the banks of Dal Lake. NC president Farooq Abdullah said they have invited top leaders of the Indian Bloc, including Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Rahul and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge confirmed their presence, while Akhilesh has already arrived in Srinagar. Other leaders likely to be present are DMK’s Kanimozhi, NCP’s Supriya Sule, CPI(M)’s Prakash Karat and CPI’s D Raja.
Harsimrat Kaur of the Shiromani Akali Dal, who is not part of the INDIA bloc, is also expected to attend.
J&K has not had an elected government since 2018, when the then ruling PDP-BJP coalition broke up.