SRINAGAR: Congress opted out of joining Union territory J&K's first elected govt "till statehood is restored", while a recent National Conference recruit from BJP — Surinder Kumar Choudhary of Jammu 's Nowshera — made the cut Wednesday as CM Omar Abdullah 's deputy in the six-member INDIA bloc ministry that took the oath of office in the presence of alliance bigwigs. Javed Ahmed Rana (Mendhar) of NC and Independent Satish Sharma (Chhamb) were the other two politicians from Jammu to be sworn in, reflecting Omar's attempt to balance representation between the two divisions of J&K. Sakina Itoo (Noorabad in Kulgam), who lost her father and ex-speaker Wali Mohammad Itoo to terrorist bullets in 1994, is the lone woman in the cabinet.
Javid Ahmad Dar (Rafiabad in Baramulla) completes the line-up. That the two Hindu faces in Omar's cabinet — ex-BJP member Choudhary and Congress 'rebel' Sharma — are both political turncoats isn't the only coincidence. Choudhary defeated J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina in the election, while Sharma relegated Congress's working president and ex-deputy CM Tara Chand to third in the vote stakes.
Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and NC patriarch Farooq Abdullah were in attendance at the heavily-guarded Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre on the banks of the Dal as lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha presided over the ceremon.
