MLA who attended Kathua rally finds place in J&K govt
NEW CABINET PDP, BJP described rejig as a ‘midterm course correction’ as eight ministers take oath of office
In the much-awaited cabinet rejig of the Jammu and Kashmir council of ministers, at least four BJP legislators, Speaker Kavinder Gupta, minister of state Sunil Kumar Sharma, both also from BJP, and two PDP legislators took oath of office and secrecy here on Monday afternoon.
Governor NN Vohra administered the oaths to the new incumbents in the presence of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, J&K in-charge of the BJP Avinash Rai Khanna and outgoing deputy CM Nirmal Singh.
Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta was the first to take oath in Hindi followed by PDP's Mohammed Khalil Bandh, BJP state president Sat Sharma, PDP's Mohammed Ashraf Mir, BJP’s MoS Sunil Kumar Sharma, Kathua MLA Rajiv Jasrotia, Devinder Kumar Manyal and Shakti Raj, all from BJP.
Jasrotia was said to be among the three BJP MLAs who attended the controversial Kathua rally.
Later, talking to the media, Nirmal Singh denied that the
JAMMU:
Kathua incident was the root cause of rejig within the BJP and said that it was a routine exercise.
In all, eight ministers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by the governor NN Vohra.
Both PDP and BJP described the cabinet reshuffle as a ‘midterm course correction’.
The coalition government completed three years in office in March. The state constituent assembly has a tenure of six years unlike five years in other Indian states.
However, sources within BJP and PDP said that the ministers dropped on Monday were facing strong criticism over their alleged shoddy style of functioning.
Nirmal Singh to take over as Speaker
BJP national general secretary and main architect of the PDP-BJP alliance in the state, Ram Madhav, on Monday announced that Dr Nirmal Singh would be the speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly.