Among the 24 legislators sworn in as Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday, 16 will join the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Cabinet. While 10 of the PDP are in the Cabinet, the BJP has six, including People’s Conference chairman and party ally Sajjad Lone.
The Cabinet Ministers from the PDP are Haseeb Drabu, Haq Khan, Imran Raza Ansari, Abdul Rehman Bhat (Veeri), Javed Mustafa Mir, Basharat Bukhari, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Altaf Bukhari and Naeem Akhter.
The PDP has three Ministers of State — Abdul Majeed Padder, Ashraf Mir and Asiya Naqash.
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The six Cabinet ministers from the BJP are Mr. Lone, Nirmal Singh, who will be Deputy Chief Minister, Lal Singh, Bali Bhagat, Sukhnandan Kumar and Chander Prakash.
The party has five Ministers of State — Shirin Dorji, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Abdul Gani Kohli, Priya Sethi and Independent candidate Pawan Kumar Gupta.
Mr. Sayeed described as a breakthrough the joining of Mr. Lone, who formerly held a separatist position, in the government, but refrained from suggesting that it would become an example for other separatist leaders. He said that it was for them to decide.
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