Omar Cabinet’s first reshuffle, expansion around July 20; new faces to be inducted
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today dropped hints of Cabinet reshuffle and expansion around July 20 which will be the first of his Government which will complete two years in office in middle of October this year.
There have been three vacancies in the Cabinet.
Omar said reshuffle and expansion in the Cabinet is likely to take place few days before or after July 20 when the National Conference MPs and MLAs are scheduled to hold a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Day One of Monsoon session of Parliament.
As per the Parliamentary provisions, the Central Government and State Assemblies can have Ministers up to 15 percent of total strength of Lok Sabha and the Assemblies. However, for the Union Territory, this provision has been kept at 10 percent of the total MLAs.
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In view of this, Omar Abdullah Government can have a maximum of nine Ministers which include the Chief Minister as Jammu and Kashmir has 90-member Assembly. Presently, besides the Chief Minister, there are five Ministers in the Cabinet, leaving three vacancies unless some incumbent Ministers are dropped.
The Chief Minister, Health and Medical Education, Education and Social Welfare Minister Sakeena Itoo and Agriculture, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Javid Dar hail from the Kashmir division while three Ministers including Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control and Forests Minister Javed Rana and Transport and Sports Minister Satish Sharma are from the Jammu division.
Satish Sharma is an Independent MLA from Chhamb while rest five belonged to the National Conference.
Though NC and Congress contested the Assembly elections together as pre-poll alliance partners, there is no representation of the latter in the Council of Ministry. In the House of 90, NC has 41 MLAs and Congress six. Lone CPM MLA MY Tarigami and five Independent MLAs support the NC in the Assembly, where majority mark is 46.
“Besides expansion, a reshuffle of portfolios in the Council of Ministry headed by Omar Abdullah is also expected,” sources told the Excelsior.
All five Ministers have been holding charge of 3-4 departments. CM Omar Abdullah himself holds charge of many departments including Finance, Revenue, Housing & Urban Development, Tourism, General Administration among others
“If none of the current Ministers are dropped, Omar can induct maximum of three Ministers which will take strength of the Cabinet to nine,” the sources said, adding it will be seen whether the Congress is given a berth in the Ministry or not.
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Omar chaired a meeting of the party MLAs which was also attended by four Independent legislators and CPM MLA at Dachigam on June 3 to discuss the party affairs. However, the Congress wasn’t invited to the meeting. As per the reports, a couple of Ministers were targeted by the MLAs for what they called irrational distribution of funds and other issues.
Of 41 MLAs, National Conference has only seven from Jammu division including two each in Ramban, Poonch and Rajouri districts and one in Reasi district. Rest 34 MLAs of the party are from Kashmir division. Of six Congress MLAs, five are from Kashmir and one from Jammu. However, four Independent MLAs from Jammu division—including Pyare Lal Sharma (Inderwal), Rameshwar Singh (Bani), Choudhary Akram (Surankote) and Muzaffar Khan (Thannamandi) are also supporting the NC.
“The reshuffle-cum-expansion of Cabinet around July 20 will give new Ministers at least a couple of months time to adjust before the Assembly session scheduled to be held in September,” the sources said.