Jammu, March 1: PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took oath as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sunday, heading a coalition that brought the BJP to power for the first time.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and party leaders LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi witnessed the ceremony, two months after elections produced a hung verdict giving the PDP and the BJP 28 and 25 seats respectively.
After taking oath, Sayeed (79), warmly hugged Modi and sat close to him, witnessing the ceremony held on a flower-decked stage at the Jammu University’s General Zorawar Singh auditorium.
Son of a religious preacher, Sayeed will head the government of his Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and will be the chief minister for six years.
Senior BJP leader Nirmal Singh was sworn in as deputy chief minister. Former separatist leader Sajad Gani Lone took oath as a BJP ally, and then hugged both Modi and Sayeed, triggering thunderous applause.
His inclusion in the cabinet followed a last-minute hitch, a BJP source told IANS, without giving details.
Inclusive of the chief minister, the PDP will have 11 cabinet berths and the BJP six, including Lone. The PDP and BJP have three and five junior ministers respectively.
Two women were named junior ministers: Priya Sethi (BJP) and Asiya Naqash (PDP).
The PDP cabinet ministers are Abdul Rehman Bhat Veeri, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Abdul Haq Khan, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Chowdhary Zulfiqar Ali, Haseeb Drabu, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Altaf Bukhari, Imran Raza Ansari and Naeem Akhtar.
The BJP’s cabinet ministers are Nirmal Singh (deputy chief minister), Chander Prakash, Choudhary Lal Singh, Bali Baghat, Sukhnandan Kumar and Sajad Gani Lone (Peoples Conference).
The BJP’s junior ministers are Chering Dorjay, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Abdul Ghani Kohli, Priya Sethi and Pawan Gupta. The PDP’s junior ministers are Abdul Majeed Paddar, Muhammad Ashraf Mir and Asiya Naqash.
While Sayeed took oath in English, his party colleagues took oath in Urdu or English. The BJP ministers took oath in English and Hindu except Choudhary Lal Singh who went for Dogri.
This is the second time Sayeed will head a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. He took power in 2002, heading a PDP-Congress alliance, for a three-year term. IANS
