Two BJP Ministers of State elevated to Cabinet rank in Mufti govt

Jammu: Amid criticism, two Ministers of State in Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed government were elevated to the rank of Cabinet ministers on Friday.

The step is seen as to increase the footprints of BJP in the state Cabinet, where BJP has only six ministers including alliance Partner Sajjad Gani Lone and PDP has 11 Cabinet Ministers.

The state Governor N N Vohra administered oath to MoS Transport (Independent charge) Abdul Gani Kohli and MoS Cooperative (Independent charge) Chering Dorji as Cabinet Ministers at an oath taking function at Rajbhawan at 12 pm Friday.

With this, total number of cabinet ministers in the PDP-BJP government will go up to 19, including Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister and MoSs have decreased to 6 from 8.

Chief Minister Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed was a present at the oath taking ceremony along with Council of Ministers along with legislators, top officers and Chief Vigilance Commissioner Kuldeep Khoda and Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) G R Sofi.

With this BJP have now got 8 Cabinet Ministers including Lone and 3 Ministers of States including alliance partner and Independent MLA Pawan Gupta, while PDP still has got 11 cabinet Ministers and 3 MoSs.

BJP has been targeted by Opposition parties of selling the the mandate of the people of Jammu region, which voted 25 seats to BJP from the region, almost equal to the number of the seats got by PDP, but had got only 5 cabinet Ministries as compared to 11 bagged by PDP.