Cabinet reshuffle to take place probably by next week
The cabinet reshuffle in ruling PDP-BJP government will be carried out any day after April 22 and among the new faces likely to be inducted include speaker Kavinder Gupta, Surinder Ambardar, Sat Sharma, Rajive Sharma and Shakti Parihar, sources told on Wednesday.
They said senior BJP leader Ram Madhav, who is also the party’s incharge for Jammu and Kashmir, is currently in Moscow while party’s president Amit Shah is busy in Karnataka.
The resignations tendered by all BJP leaders to party president last evening, they said, will not be forwarded to Chief Minister. “It was only for reshuffle purpose,” the sources said.
All the BJP ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir government resigned last evening to pave way for a reshuffle of the party ministers in the Mehbooba Mufti-led government.
Sources told that while there was no threat to PDP-BJP government, the resignation will allow the party to induct fresh faces and retain previous ones who are already in the government based on their performance.
The development comes mere days after two BJP ministers, who had attended protests in favour of accused in horrific Kathua rape and murder case.
Sources said the cabinet reshuffle in the BJP became necessary when the PDP inducted Tassaduq Hussain Mufti and Javaid Mustafa Mir as cabinet ministers raising the strength of the party to 12, including Chief Minister, in the state cabinet. The Chief Minister later allotted Tourism portfolio to her brother Tassaduq Mufti while Javaid was assigned Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction and Floriculture departments.