SRINAGAR: As the much-awaited cabinet reshuffle of Omar Abdullah's government is set to take place on Tuesday, the ruling National Conference (NC) has not taken its alliance partner Congress into confidence or invited the grand old party to join the cabinet.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday met Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and sought time from him for the cabinet reshuffle on the first three days of this week.
The first cabinet reshuffle of Omar government, which assumed office on October 16, 2024, will take place at 10 am at Lok Bhavan, Srinagar on Tuesday. LG Sinha will administer the oath of office to the new ministers.
At present, the J&K government has six ministers including the Chief Minister while three cabinet posts are lying vacant.
Sources said the CM may drop at least two ministers to include new faces in the cabinet and fill all the three vacant posts of the ministers.
There is a strong possibility that the CM may induct J&K Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather into the Council of Ministers and give him the Finance portfolio. If Rather moves to cabinet, a senior NC MLA would be appointed as new Speaker of the Assembly.
As NC MLAs are lobbying intensively for ministerial berths, Omar has sought to discourage attempts to influence the decision, telling the aspirants not to “knock on Farooq sahib's door, my door or anyone else's door” as the decision on who would become a minister had already been made.
However, surprisingly, the NC has not taken its alliance partner Congress into confidence for the cabinet reshuffle.
“I don’t have any information about it. They did not inform us,” J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra told TNIE.
He said, in the past, the party had been talking about the reshuffle with Congress but “when they took the final call on it (cabinet reshuffle), they didn't communicate with us. It is their prerogative what they will do”.
Karra said Congress had already stated that it will not join the government till the restoration of statehood along with the constitutional guarantees.
“That has not happened yet,” he said, adding, “We have taken a principled stance and it was endorsed by party high command and we are sticking by that”.
The NC and Congress contested 2024 Assembly polls in an alliance, but when Omar Abdullah took oath as Chief Minister on October 16, 2024, the Congress decided not to join the government and linked its participation with restoration of J&K’s statehood.