Srinagar, April 4 (KNS): PDP president Mehbooba Mufti Monday become the first woman chief minister of the state by taking oath as the 13th elected head at Raj Bhavan in Jammu, ending the 87-day Governor rule.
Mehbooba succeeds her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who died on January 7 this year. 23 ministers took oath along with Mehbooba, including members of the BJP, whose Nirmal Singh will be Deputy chief minister.
After taking oath, chief minister Mehbooba chaired her first meeting for half-an-hour in Civil Secretariat Jammu and interacted with commissioners and the secretaries.
Today’s swearing-in saw many new faces inducted and old faces axed in the new council of ministers.
While the PDP axed former PWD minister, Syed Altaf Bukhari, former Revenue minister Javaid Mustafa Mir, former MoS Abdul Majeed Padder, and inducted new faces as junior ministers, including MLA Pampore Zahoor Mir and MLA Dooru Syed Farooq Andrabi.
The BJP dropped former PHE and Flood and Irrigation Minister Sukhnandan, and former MoS Pawan Gupta (Independent MLA from Udhampur and inducted new faces Sham Lal Choudhary, Ajay Nanda.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
PC chairman Sajad Gani Lone took oath as minister.
Those who took the oath include Ghulam Nabi Lone (Hanjoora), Abdul Haq Khan, Basharat Bukhari, Haseeb Drabu, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, Naeem Akhtar, Imran Ansari, Asiya Naqash, Zahoor Mir and Farooq Andrabi.
Basharat Bukhari was the only minister form Kashmir valley who took oath in Kashmiri. Other took oath either in English or Urdu.
Among the BJP Nirmal Singh (Deputy CM), Chandra Prakash Ganga, Bali Bagat, Lal Singh, Tesring Dorjey, Abdula Gani Kohli, Sunil Sharma, Priya Seth, Sham Lal Choudhary, Ajay Nanda took oath as the ministers.
Among the dignitaries who attended the swearing-in included NC president Farooq Abdullah and former chief minister Omar Abdullah.
Venkaiah Naidu (Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs), Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Food Processing) and Jitendra Singh (Minister of State in the PMO) were the central ministers who attended the ceremony. (KNS)