Sagar took oath in Urdu, while Saifullah, Firdous and Wani took oath in English.
Srinagar. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday expanded his cabinet, under which four new ministers were sworn in. These four new faces include Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mir Saifullah, Shamima Firdous and Altaf Ahmed Wani (Kallu) who are from Kashmir Valley. At the same time, a sitting minister can be removed from the cabinet.
Sagar, a former minister and seven-time MLA, was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for the first time in 1983 from Batmaloo seat in Srinagar. He retained this seat in 1987 also. Sagar later contested from Khanyar seat and won from there in 1996. National Conference (NC) general secretary Sagar has not lost any assembly election so far.
Sagar had won the election from Khanyar seat in 2024. He defeated former Srinagar Deputy Mayor Sheikh Imran, who had contested the election as an independent candidate, by a margin of 9,912 votes. Mir, who has represented North Kashmir's Kupwara constituency three times, had won the Trehgam seat in the 2024 assembly elections after delimitation.
Wani and Firdous took oath as ministers for the first time
Pahalgam MLA Wani and Habbakadal MLA Firdous took oath as ministers for the first time. Wani has represented Pahalgam twice, while Firdous was elected from Habbakadal constituency for the third time in 2024. Firdous, president of the party's women's wing, is the second woman inducted into Abdullah's cabinet after Sakina Ittu. Sagar took oath in Urdu, while Saifullah, Firdous and Wani took oath in English. Before the cabinet expansion, all the ministers had submitted their resignations to the Chief Minister.
these people were present
The Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma, NC President Farooq Abdullah and MLAs from the ruling alliance and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were present at the swearing-in ceremony, among others. The cabinet led by Omar Abdullah previously had six ministers. According to the rules, the number of Cabinet members in a Union Territory can be up to 10 percent of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly. There are 90 members in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. The government's ally Congress has kept itself away from the cabinet. The party remains firm on its stand that it will not join the Council of Ministers until the full statehood of Jammu and Kashmir is restored.