The Omar Abdullah Cupboard sworn in on Wednesday has three faces from the Kashmir province, together with the Chief Minister, and an equal quantity from the Jammu area, in a cautious balancing act by the Nationwide Convention. The names additionally cowl nearly all of the disparate areas of the Union Territory.
The Jammu faces embody Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary, who defeated BJP J&Okay working president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera, and Satish Sharma, a Congress insurgent and an Unbiased MLA from Chhamb, who pushed the official celebration candidate from the seat to the third place – each Nowshera and Chhamb are in Hindu-dominated Jammu mainland.
The third minister from Jammu within the Cupboard is Javed Ahmed Rana, a Gujjar chief from Jammu’s Pir Panjal space.
The three Kashmir-based ministers are Omar himself, who received from Meeting seats Ganderbal and Budgam this time in Central Kashmir; Sakina Itoo, the lady face and an MLA from South Kashmir; and Javed Ahmad Dar, an MLA from North Kashmir.
Omar can nonetheless embody three extra ministers, given the higher restrict of 9 for the Cupboard in J&Okay, leaving scope for accommodating extra pursuits.
Satish Sharma’s rivals within the Meeting election included the BJP’s Rajeev Sharma – who had received Chhamb in 2014 – and Congress J&Okay working president and former deputy chief minister Tara Chand.
Sharma’s win was big as Tara Chand is the Congress’s Dalit face within the UT, and has been a three-term MLA from Chhamb.
Sharma additionally comes from pedigree, being the son of late Congress chief Madan Lal Sharma, who had been a two-term MP from the Jammu-Poonch constituency (2004 to 2014) and a three-term MLA (from Chhamb, 1983 to 1987, and Akhnoor, 2002-2004).
Satish Sharma’s uncle Sham Lal Sharma is a BJP MLA from Jammu North.
Javed Ahmed Rana is taken into account the architect of the NC’s exceptional turnaround in Pir Panjal – comprising the Rajouri and Poonch districts – successful six of its eight Meeting seats this time. In 2014, the celebration had received only one, Mendhar, of the seven Meeting seats in Pir Panjal then. By the way, Rana was that sole winner, defeating the PDP’s Mohammad Mahroof Khan.
Rana, 61, a regulation graduate from Jammu College, is now a three-time MLA from Mendhar and served a stint within the center as an MLC. He received from Mendhar this time defeating the BJP’s Murtaza Ahmad Khan by 17,270 votes.
The BJP ended up successful just one seat in Pir Panjal, the brand new seat of Kalakote added to it after delimitation. In 2014, it had received two seats within the area.
Sakina Itoo, 52, has been the NC’s lady face for a very long time, and served within the Omar Abdullah authorities of 2008-14 because the Social Welfare Minister. She joined politics, abandoning her MBBS course within the third yr, after her father Wali Mohammad Itoo was assassinated by militants in 1994.
The senior Itoo was an NC chief and represented the constituency Sakina received from this time, D H Pora (referred to as Noorabad earlier than delimitation in 2022) in South Kashmir’s Kulgam, for 4 consecutive phrases from 1972 to 1987.
Sakina was first elected from the seat in 1996. In 2002, she misplaced to the PDP’s Abdul Aziz Zargar after she deserted her election marketing campaign following 4 assassination makes an attempt on her. Six years later (the J&Okay Meeting time period was six years earlier) she received by defeating Zargar and was inducted into the Cupboard. In 2014, Sakina misplaced once more, to the PDP’s Abdul Majeed Padder, however wrested it again within the current elections.
Javed Ahmad Dar received from the Rafiabad Meeting constituency in North Kashmir within the current elections. Dar, 50, has an MBA from Pune College and joined politics in 1999 as a PDP chief. With the household identify behind him, Dar’s rise was swift, and he quickly grew to become the PDP’s state secretary.
As per sources, Dar felt betrayed when the PDP didn’t give him a ticket. In 2008, he left and joined the NC, and after he received from the Rafiabad seat, was inducted within the Omar Abdullah-led Cupboard on the time.
In 2014 although, Dar misplaced to the PDP’s younger face Yawar Mir. Lately, he was the NC’s zonal president for north Kashmir.
