Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday chose National Conference leader Surender Choudhary as Deputy Chief Minister, and made Javed Rana, and Satish Sharma Ministers in his new Cabinet, ending the debate over the non-representation of Jammu in the J&K government.
Choudhary defeated BJP’s J&K president Ravinder Raina in Nowshera in the recent Assembly elections, while Rana, also from NC, won from Mendhar constituency of Poonch. Sharma is an independent candidate who won from Chhamb Assembly constituency defeating senior Congress leader Tara Chand. Sharma who was with the Congress earlier was denied a ticket but contested as an independent and won.
The two other ministers are Sakina Itoo from D H Pora Kulgam constituency of south Kashmir and Javed Ahmad Dar from Rafiabad constituency of north Kashmir. Both are from the National Conference.
Choudhary, speaking after taking oath as a Deputy Chief Minister, said it was an emotional moment for him and that he would try his best to address issues of people of Jammu and Kashmir. "There are huge challenges which we are going to face. We have to fill the vacuum of the past ten years,” he said.
Satish Sharma said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had given Jammu its due. “I should say our induction in the Cabinet will bridge the gap between Kashmir and Jammu and it will also defeat designs of communal forces who are trying to divide us. I am warning them that they should desist from their mechanisations.”
“It is great on the part of Omar Abdullah to induct an independent candidate like me in the cabinet. My induction is a slap to those forces who were saying Jammu will not get any representation,” Sharma said, alluding to the BJP. "He (Omar) is a secular man and he is a development-oriented man,” he said.
The NC won 35 seats in Kashmir and seven in Jammu, taking its number to 42. The BJP won 29 seats from Jammu, making it the main opposition to the NC.
As the NC’s winning candidates are mostly from the Kashmir Valley, there were apprehensions that Omar Abdullah cabinet will be the first cabinet with no representation for the Dogra community. However, Omar Abdullah has pushed the debate aside, leaving the BJP to deal with powerful leaders of Jammu such as Choudhary, Rana, and Sharma.
“The National Conference has done an unprecedented outreach to Jammu, the region which gave sweeping verdict to BJP in 29 out of 43 constituencies. A Deputy Chief Minister and two Ministers in a cabinet of six is an essential communication to the electorate of Jammu to tell them that times will have to be created to look at the electoral battles beyond the prism of religion,” political analyst Zafar Choudhary said.
“I think it needed a lot of courage and statesmanship on Omar Abdullah’s part to go beyond its core constituency and speak to the region and communities which have not favoured the National Conference in decades. This new political environment also creates opportunities of importance for the Rajouri-Poonch region which traditionally stood on the margins of politics of Kashmir versus Jammu,” political analyst Zafar Choudhary said.
“It is also the first time since 1975 that a Deputy Chief Minister is from the same party as the Chief Minister. In terms of regional representation, the cabinet appears reminiscent, in some ways, of the first cabinet of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah as Chief Minister,” he added.
