BJP ministers quit ahead of Cabinet rejig in J&K

Srinagar: All the nine remaining BJP ministers in the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, including deputy chief minister Nirmal Kumar Singh, resigned on Tuesday to facilitate a major reshuffle in the Council of Ministers headed by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.

The reshuffle has been necessitated by the resignation of two BJP ministers — Choudhary Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga — amid controversy over their rallying behind the accused in the Kathua gangrape and murder case.

BJP sources said that their six Cabinet ministers and three ministers of state submitted their resignations to state BJP president Sat Paul Sharma to facilitate a Cabinet reshuffle.

But Jammu, the winter capital of the state and strong bastion of the saffron party, was agog with rumours on Tuesday evening that the BJP ministers had resigned to show solidarity with Mr Singh and Mr Ganga.

The state can have a maximum of 25 ministers including the chief minister. Of them, 14 portfolios are with the PDP and the remaining with the BJP.

The PDP has been in power in the state with support from the BJP, which has 25 legislators, in the 89-seat Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The PDP, the largest group, has 28 legislators.

The Cabinet rank ministers from the BJP included Nirmal Singh (deputy chief minister), Bali Bhagat, Chering Dorjey, Sham Lal Choudhary and Abdul Gani Kohli, besides Sajad Gani Lone who was inducted into the Council of Ministers from the BJP quota. The ministers of state from the BJP were Sunil Kumar Sharma, Priya Sethi and Ajay Nanda. The PDP has 11 Cabinet ministers, including CM, and two ministers of state. Earlier, Ms Mufti assigned the charge of the departments of industries and commerce and forest, ecology and environment to deputy CM Nirmal Kumar Singh.