Omar Abdullah faces balancing act ahead of J&K Cabinet expansion | Political Pulse News
The tussle between the younger guard and seasoned veterans, the competing aspirations of Kashmir and Jammu, and the sub-regional demands within the two regions are among the key challenges Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has to navigate as he expands his Cabinet to full strength on Tuesday.
Aware of the magnitude of the challenge and its potential repercussions for his party, the National Conference (NC), the CM has delayed expanding the Cabinet till now, holding out hope for restoration of statehood. Had it happened, Omar would have had greater flexibility and a wider pool of options to accommodate the competing interests in the party.
Omar’s challenge is not limited to maintaining a regional balance. He must also accommodate the aspirations of different sub-regions and ethnic communities while preserving cohesion in the NC. With a large number of party leaders vying for Cabinet berths, those left out could cause resentment and discontent to build up in the party.
Since its reorganisation in 2019, Jammu and Kashmir can have only nine ministers, including the CM. At present, the government already has six ministers, including the CM, leaving space for only three more.
Omar’s hurdles
And that is the headache for Omar: there are three vacancies and more than 30 aspirants. As one NC leader put it, Omar is caught in a situation that is reflected in the Urdu proverb ‘ek anaar, sau beemar’ (the idiom refers to the many seekers for something that is scarce).
For the CM, it is also not an easy decision to drop any of the current ministers, especially as they have been inducted in the Cabinet keeping in view regional, sub-regional and ethnic balance.
Of the six ministers, Sakina Itoo, one of the senior leaders, represents South Kashmir while Javid Ahmad Dar, an associate of Omar, represents the north. Omar himself represents the central Kashmir region. Satish Sharma was inducted into the Cabinet to give representation to mainland Jammu — consisting of the four districts of Jammu, Kathua, Samba, and Udhampur — that overwhelmingly voted for the BJP. Dropping Sharma would mean that mainland Jammu would be without any representation. Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary and Forest Minister Javed Rana both represent the Pir Panjal region. While Choudhary has been NC’s main face against the BJP, Rana has been the architect of the party’s revival in Pir Panjal. Rana is also a prominent Gujjar leader whom the party can’t afford to drop.
In the current Omar Cabinet, only the Chenab Valley — consisting of the districts of Ramban, Doda, and Kishtwar — has gone unrepresented. Similarly, the ethnic Pahari community, too, doesn’t have any representation.
In the Valley that gave the NC a bulk of its seats, many aspirants hope to make it to the Cabinet. While the CM’s senior colleagues see a Cabinet berth as a matter of right, the younger lot are hopeful that they will be given an opportunity.
The CM’s biggest challenge will be to keep the senior party colleagues such as Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, Mubarak Gul, Ali Mohammad Sagar, and Mir Saifullah happy, especially as they feel sidelined over the induction of new faces. These leaders are senior to Omar in the party and colleagues of his father and party presidentFarooq Abdullah. However, three of these leaders hail from central Kashmir and giving them space could lead to dissent in North and South Kashmir.
The younger lot in the NC, especially those seen as close to the CM, are hopeful of being given a chance to gain governance experience. Senior leaders such as Sagar, Mohammad Akbar Lone, and Mian Altaf are hopeful of their legislator sons getting a Cabinet position.
