Srinagar, Oct 27 : Four new ministers were sworn in on Tuesday as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expanded his council of ministers.
All four new faces — Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mir Saifullah, Shameema Firdous and Altaf Ahmad Wani (Kalloo) — are from the Kashmir valley, even as one sitting minister is likely to be dropped from the council of ministers.
Former minister and seven-time MLA Sagar was first elected to the J-K assembly from Batamaloo seat here in 1983. He retained the seat in 1987. Later, Sagar shifted to Khanyar and won the polls from there in 1996.
The National Conference (NC) general secretary has never lost an assembly election.
Sagar won the Khanyar seat in 2024, defeating former deputy Mayor of Srinagar Sheikh Imran, who contested the polls as an independent candidate by a margin of 9912 votes.
Mir, who has represented the Kupwara constituency of north Kashmir thrice, was elected from the Trehgam seat, after delimitation, in the 2024 assembly polls.
Pahalgam MLA Wani and Habbakadal MLA Firdous were sworn in as ministers for the first time.
Wani has represented Pahalgam twice, while Firdous was elected from the Habbakadal constituency here for the third time in 2024.
Firdous, who is also the president of the Women’s wing of the party, is the second woman in the Abdullah-led council of ministers after Sakina Itoo.
While Sagar took the oath in Urdu, Saifullah, Firdous and Wani took the oath in English.
Ahead of the expansion, all ministers had submitted their resignations to the chief minister.
The ceremony was attended by the chief minister, Deputy CM Surinder Chaudhary, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma, NC president Farooq Abdullah, and MLAs, including from the ruling alliance and opposition PDP and BJP.
The earlier strength of the Abdullah-led cabinet was six. As per the rules, a cabinet in a UT can be up to 10 per cent of the assembly strength, which is 90 in J-K.
The Congress, which is an ally of the government, has distanced itself from the cabinet and stuck to its stand of not joining the council of ministers until the statehood is restored.
