Srinagar, Oct 30 (NVI) The expansion of Council of Ministers in Jammu and Kashmir three days back has caused rumblings within the ruling National Conference (NC), with a number of legislators said to be unhappy and one of them being sacked as the party’s General Secretary.
Against the backdrop of this unhappiness, 17 party MLAs, including Gul and Larmi, met today at the residence of MLA Qaiser Jamsheed Lone, attracting a lot of attention.
At least two MLAs – Mubarak Gul and Abdul Majid Larmi – have publicly expressed their unhappiness over their exclusion in the nine-member Council of Ministers headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Hours later, the NC tonight removed Gul from the post of party General Secretary, two days after his appointment to the position, succeeding MLA Ali Mohd Sagar who was inducted in the Council of Ministers.
NC president Farooq Abdullah issued an order, saying Sagar will continue to be the General Secretary of the party.
NC has 42 MLAs in the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and has support of 4 legislators of the Congress and one Independent.
While senior NC leader Nazir Ahmad Gurezi said it was nothing more than a friendly lunch, the assembled legislators significantly included those whose names were in circulation as candidates for the Ministerial berths.
Significantly, Gurezi, who had been widely discussed as a possible ministerial entrant, had skipped the new ministers’ swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
The first expansion of the Council of Ministers since the NC took power two years back has also caused a lot of disappointment in Jammu region as there is no representation in the new Cabinet from there. (NVI)
