Srinagar: Four new ministers were sworn in on Tuesday as Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah expanded his council of ministers to its maximum permissible strength of nine.
Under Union Territory regulation, the council of ministers is capped at 10% of the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir assembly. Shameema Firdous: The president of the party’s women’s wing and a first-time minister, Firdous was elected from the Habbakadal constituency for her third term in 2024. The Congress, which won six seats in alliance with the 42-seat NC, declined to join the government.
Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office to Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mir Saifullah, Shameema Firdous, and Altaf Ahmad Wani (Kalloo) at Lok Bhawan in Srinagar. All four new inductees represent constituencies in the Kashmir Valley. Sagar took his oath in Urdu, while Saifullah, Firdous, and Wani did so in English. Prior to the ceremony, all sitting ministers had submitted their resignations to the chief minister as part of the reshuffle. Sports and technical education minister Satish Sharma was the only minister dropped. Instead of including a legislator from Jammu, the NC decided to induct a legislator from Kashmir. After Sharma’s resignation, Jammu will now have only two ministers representing it in the cabinet: Deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary and minister Javeed Rana. The expansion brings the cabinet to nine ministers along with the chief minister. Party leadership reiterated its stand that Congress will not accept cabinet berths until statehood is fully restored to Jammu and Kashmir. Besides Omar Abdullah, the ceremony was attended by deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma, NC president Farooq Abdullah, and MLAs from both ruling and opposition parties, including the BJP and the PDP.
