Srinagar, Oct 18 Senior National Conference (NC) leader and former J&K minister, Abdul Rahim Rather is likely to become the Speaker of the J&K Assembly, party sources said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the post of Deputy Speaker has been offered to the BJP by the NC.
The Finance Minister in previous NC governments headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah, Rather won the assembly election from the Chrar-e-Sharief constituency by defeating senior PDP leader and former minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura.
The National Conference won 42 seats in the 90-member house, and was followed by the BJP with 29. The Congress won six, the Peoples Democratic Party three, and the Aam Aadmi Party, the Peoples Conference, and the CPI-M one each, while 7 seats were won by independent candidates.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and four other ministers were sworn in on Wednesday.
Although the NC and Congress fought the assembly elections in alliance, the Congress' J&K President, Tariq Hameed Karra has said that his party would not join the cabinet as long as J&K’s statehood was not restored. Another ally, M.Y.Tarigami of the CPI-M has also decided to stay out of the cabinet, sources said. Tarigami won the assembly election from the Kulgam constituency.
Omar Abdullah can still include four more ministers in his cabinet. However, the choice of new ministers is difficult since there are many aspirants for the ministerial berths in his cabinet. Some of NC’s senior leaders like Ali Mohammad Sagar, Saifullah Mir, and Mubarak Gul are believed to be front runners for the ministerial berths.
The Chief Minister has, however, focused his priority on addressing the sense of alienation in the Jammu division where the BJP won 29 seats while the Congress managed to just win one seat. The inclusion of Surinder Choudhary, who defeated the BJP's J&K chief Rabinder Raina from Nowshera, as the Deputy Chief Minister is a step towards accommodating the interests of the people in the Jammu division.
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