Omar Abdullah Inducts Four Ministers, Drops Satish Sharma

Omar Abdullah expanded Jammu and Kashmir’s Council of Ministers on October 27, inducting four ministers and dropping Independent legislator Satish Sharma from the cabinet. At a ceremony in Srinagar, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office to Ali Mohammad Sagar, Shameem Firdous, Mir Saifullah and Altaf Ahmad Kaloo. The swearing-in completed the cabinet reshuffle led by the chief minister. Sagar, Firdous and Saifullah are National Conference leaders. Sagar and Saifullah served as ministers in Abdullah’s cabinet from 2008 to 2014, while Firdous previously chaired the Jammu and Kashmir State Commission for Women with the status of a minister of state. Kaloo represents the Pahalgam constituency. Sharma, an Independent legislator, was removed from the cabinet as part of the change. A report on the new lineup said he had been the only minister from mainland Jammu, described there as the districts of Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua. With his removal, those districts have no cabinet representation, according to that account. The expansion followed days of uncertainty about the final lineup. National Conference spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq had said the oath-taking...