Ganesh Kendale
SRINAGAR: Congress opted out of joining Union territory J&K’s first elected govt “till statehood is restored”, while a recent National Conference recruit from BJP — Surinder Kumar Choudhary of Jammu’s Nowshera — made the cut Wednesday as CM Omar Abdullah’s deputy in the six-member INDIA bloc ministry that took the oath of office in the presence of alliance bigwigs.
Javed Ahmed Rana (Mendhar) of NC and Independent Satish Sharma (Chhamb) were the other two politicians from Jammu to be sworn in, reflecting Omar’s attempt to balance representation between the two divisions of J&K.Sakina Itoo (Noorabad in Kulgam), who lost her father and ex-speaker Wali Mohammad Itoo to terrorist bullets in 1994, is the lone woman in the cabinet. Javid Ahmad Dar (Rafiabad in Baramulla) completes the line-up.
That the two Hindu faces in Omar’s cabinet — ex-BJP member Choudhary and Congress ‘rebel’ Sharma — are both political turncoats isn’t the only coincidence. Choudhary defeated J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina in the election, while Sharma relegated Congress’s working president and ex-deputy CM Tara Chand to third in the vote stakes.
Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and NC patriarch Farooq Abdullah were in attendance at the heavily-guarded Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre on the banks of the Dal as lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha presided over the ceremony marking the formal end of six years of central rule.
The presence of Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, who defeated Omar in the Lok Sabha battle this year while still in Tihar jail in a terror case, accentuated the significance of the occasion.
“I fulfilled my promise by choosing a deputy CM from Jammu. I had promised the people of Jammu that they wouldn’t feel they are not part of the govt,” Omar said in his first remarks after the swearing-in.
The CM said at least three more berths in the govt would be filled soon, also indicating talks were underway with ally Congress regarding its decision to sit out the formation of the cabinet.
Amid speculation of Congress functionaries being divided over the choice of a potential inclusion in the cabinet, PCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra said the party was only iterating its commitment to getting J&K’s statehood restored by supporting the govt from outside till then. Congress has six MLAs in the 95-member House, with its tally halving compared to the last election in 2014.
Sources said Karra, elected from Shalteng in Srinagar, was to get a cabinet berth, but several senior functionaries wanted the coalition brass to pick AICC general secretary G A Mir, who won the Dooru seat in Anantnag, ahead of the former.
“Congratulations to CM Omar Abdullah and to the people of J&K. However, government formation without statehood felt incomplete today. Democracy was snatched from the people, and today we renew our pledge to continue our fight until statehood is fully restored,” Rahul wrote on X.
Omar is expected to convene the first cabinet meeting Thursday and get a resolution passed to propose restoration of J&K’s statehood and submit it to PM Narendra Modi.
