Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir’s outgoing revenue minister Syed Basharat Bukhari has resigned from the state Cabinet after chief minister Mehbooba Mufti shifted him to the lesser important portfolio of horticulture in a minor reshuffle of the state government on Friday.
Mr Bukhari, after submitted his letter to the CM, said he has stated all the reasons for his resignation and that “she is the best (person) to explain those reasons.”
Minister for information technology, technical education and youth services and sports Molvi Imran Raza Ansari is also reported to have resigned.
Mr Ansari was sulking over being in charge of “lesser important portfolio” after having reportedly been promised elevation “after some time” when he took up the assignment last year.
Earlier, the chief minister assigned the charge of departments of revenue, disaster management, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction and parliamentary affairs to senior PDP leader and close confidante Abdul Rehman Veeri.
Syed Naeem Akhtar Andrabi will now be the minister for public works.
Newly inducted minister Syed Altaf Bukhari, who returns to the Cabinet after more than a year, is assigned the education department, while Haseeb A. Drabu will now also look after labour and employment besides finance.
The charge of the department of culture shall remain with the chief minister, an official communiqué said.
The changes came after governor N.N. Vohra administered the oath of office to Mr Altaf Bukhari, who returns to the Cabinet after more than a year.
The PDP mogul Mr Bukhari who had served as an influential Cabinet rank minister in the previous PDP-BJP government headed by Mufti Muhammad Sayeed was dropped unceremoniously when Ms Mufti was sworn in as the 13th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir along with 22 ministers on April 4 last year. His exit came amid reports that he had allegedly made a furtive effort to form a government with the BJP when talks between the PDP president and saffron party’s leadership in Delhi had broken down.
Mr Bukhari had, however, denied he was leading any pressure or dissident group within the PDP and had insisted that he did not keep his ties with the BJP a secret as his main objective was to avoid thrusting another election upon the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “One year passed since the polls were held in 2014. I didn’t want people to undergo further hardships. If anyone says I was leading the pressure group, I would say in return that my basic objective was to make Mehbooba Mufti state’s chief minister,” he had said.
