Omar Abdullah is being chosen as NC’s Chief Ministerial nominee in today’s Legislature Party meeting. In a separate meeting, Congress is likely to endorse his nomination. After a joint meeting of NC and Congress, which may also be attended by CPM leader MY Tarigami and at least 5 independent MLAs supporting this coalition, a 3-member delegation will call on LG Manoj Sinha tomorrow and stake the claim for the government formation.
The swearing-in ceremony is expected to be held on Sunday or Monday.
While Omar Abdullah will be the Chief Minister, according to well-placed sources, there will be no Deputy CM. Congress may be offered one Cabinet berth which the party may give either to MLA Dooru GA Mir, who secured more than 44,000 votes, or to the JKPCC chief and MLA Central Shalteng Tariq Hamid Karra. Congress may also get the post of Deputy Speaker. Both of NC’s Hindu MLAs from Jammu (Nowshera and Ramban) Surender Kumar Choudhary and Arjun Kumar Singh besides one Muslim MLA from Jammu are likely to become Cabinet Ministers. The remaining 5 Ministers are likely to be picked up from NC’s Kashmir MLAs.
Following are probables:
1. Abdul Rahim Rather
2. Sakeena Masood Itoo
3. Hasnain Masoodi
4. Tanvir Sadiq
5. Salman Sagar
6. Farooq Ahmad Shah
7. Dr Sajad Shafi
8.Qaisar Jamshed Lone
9. Mir Saifullah
10. Nazir Gurezi
11. Mian Mehar Ali
