Jammu and Kashmir cabinet re-shuffle: Kavinder Gupta to be new Deputy CM, 7 new ministers announced

SRINAGAR: Eight new ministers will be inducted in the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet on Monday, sources told Zee Media. Kavinder Gupta has been appointed as the new Deputy Chief Minister of state, after Nirmal Singh tendered his resignation on Sunday night. 

“It was the decision of the party to change roles. Keeping in line with that decision I stepped down. The govt has worked well for three years. I am sure they will perform very well,” Singh told news agency ANI.

The PDP will have Mohd Khalil Band, MLA from Pulwama, and Mohd Ashraf Mir, MLA from Sonwar, as Cabinet ministers, while the BJP will upgrade Sunil Sharma, at present Minister of State for Transport, to the rank of a Cabinet minister, the officials said.

BJP MLA from Doda Shakti Raj will also be sworn in as Minister of State tomorrow at the oath-taking ceremony, which will be attended by senior BJP leaders, including national general secretary Ram Madhav and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh, they said.
Devinder Kumar Manyal is another BJP MLA to be be sworn-in as the minister for the state.

The swearing in ceremony is expected to take place at noon on Monday.

Following, the massive uproar over Kathua gang-rape and murder case, the People`s Democratic Party(PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government decided to rejig the state cabinet. 

Nirmal Singh will now be made a speaker, said sources.

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