Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 28: Indicating reshuffle in the Council of Ministry, an exercise which was last undertaken about three and a half years back and was pending due to three vacancies in the Ministry, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today that results of MLC elections could have a bearing on the reshuffle.
Election for four seats of Legislative Council, two each reserved for Jammu and Kashmir divisions, was scheduled to be held on December 3. A lot is at stake for National Conference-Congress coalition Government as the two parties were contesting the elections in alliance with each other with each party putting up candidates for two seats each.
“These MLC elections in the State have come at a good time because their results will have a bearing on the reshuffle that is being discussed”, Omar tweeted today.
The tweet assumed significance as there had been talks of an impending reshuffle in the Council of Ministry as Omar had to share burden of two portfolios of Congress-Works and Education-which were lying with him for past quite sometime.
While portfolio of Works was with the Chief Minister since August 25, 2010 when Works Minister and Congress leader Ghulam Mohammad Saroori was sacked from the Cabinet in the wake of a controversy shrouding her daughter for impersonation in MBBS/BDS exam, in which he had recently been given clean chit by the CBI, the Education Department was held by Omar after Congress leader Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed was divested of the portfolio following involvement of his son in examination scam about a year ago. Peerzada was now holding charge of Public Enterprises Ministry.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Government would take the performance of Ministers and legislators into account in the elections of MLCs while undertaking the reshuffle in the Council of Ministry, which was evident from the tweet of the Chief Minister that results of the MLC elections would have bearing on the reshuffle (in the Council of Ministry) that was being discussed.
As per the Constitutional provisions in Jammu and Kashmir, the State can have a maximum of 25 Ministers (20 per cent of total strength of both Houses of the Legislature). In Parliament and Assembly, the maximum strength of the Ministry is confined to 15 per cent of total strength of the Lok Sabha and Assemblies.
There were 23 Ministers including the Chief Minister in the State when the last reshuffle was undertaken in July 2009 i.e. about seven months after the formation of Government on June 5, 2009 leaving two vacancies-one each of National Conference and Congress quota. The Congress vacancies rose to two in August 2010 when Mr Saroori was removed from the Cabinet.
Of three vacancies in the Council of Ministry at present, two belonged to Congress and one to National Conference. The vacancies could rise only if the two partners decided to drop some of the incumbent Ministers to pave the way for new faces.
There were a total of 17 Cabinet Ministers in the State including the Chief Minister with nine belonging to National Conference and seven to Congress. DPN MLA Ghulam Hassan Mir is also a Cabinet Minister. In addition, there were five Ministers of State-three from the Congress and two from the National Conference. Of three Ministers of State from Congress, two (Aijaz Khan and Dr Manohar Lal Sharma) held the Independent charge of some Departments.
Omar Abdullah was presently holding the charge of Home, General Administration, Planning and Development, Power, Works, Education, Information, Civil Aviation, Hospitality and Protocol, Estates etc.
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