Srinagar: All the BJP ministers in the ruling alliance are resigning in next few hours to pave way for reshuffle of the party ministers in the state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Sources said that while there was no threat to ruling alliance, the resignation will allow the party to induct fresh faces and retained those who were already in the government based on their performance. the decision was taken at a core group meeting of the BJP, the sources said.
The development comes a day after Governor NN Vohra accepted resignation of the two BJP ministers–Chandar Prakash Ganga and Ch. Lal Singh– who had participated in a rally in support of the people accused in gruesome rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.
On Sunday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had accepted the resignations of the two BJP ministers received by her from BJP state Chief Sat Sharma and forwarded to Governor N N Vohra for completing the procedural formalities, they said.
With these resignations, the number of ministers in the state government has come down to 22, including nine from the BJP.
The 18-page chargesheet in the Kathua rape case stated that the girl was gangraped inside a temple, where she was confined using sedatives. The accused then strangled and hit her on the head twice with a stone.
They said the cabinet reshuffle in the BJP became necessary when the PDP inducted Tassaduq Hussain Mufti and Javaid Mustafa Mir as cabinet ministers raising the strength of the party to 12, including Chief Minister, in the state cabinet. The Chief Minister later allotted Tourism portfolio to her brother Tassaduq Mufti while Javaid was assigned Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation and Reconstruction and Floriculture departments.
Senior PDP Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri was divested of Disaster Management, Relief Rehabilitation & Reconstruction portfolios while as he retained Revenue and was also given Parliamentary Affairs and Hajj and Auqaf portfolios. In the process, Syed Farooq Andrabi tendered his resignation from the ministry of Hajj & Auqaf. Later Haseeb Drabu was made to resign as finance minister.
At the same time, the BJP has only six including Deputy Chief Minister as cabinet ministers even as portfolios held by Chandar Prakash Ganga and Lal Singh were assigned to Dr Nirmal Singh today.
