Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti made a history by becoming the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.
According to reports, Mehbooba took oath in Jammu along with 17 cabinet ministers and six ministers of state (MoS) while as the alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Nirmal Singh also took oath as deputy chief minister.
The revival of the BJP-PDP coalition – after three months of stalemate – has brought an end to the Governor’s rule, which was imposed in the state after Mehbooba’s father and incumbent Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed passed away.
The PDP has 27 members while BJP has 25. Peoples’ Conference has two MLAs while two other independents are supporting the coalition.
Meanwhile, PDP has dropped Altaf Bukhari and Javed Mustafa from the ministry.
BJP leader Sukhnandan was dropped from the list of Ministers besides Minister of State Pawan Gupta, an independent MLA from Udhampur, who has been replaced by Ajay Nanda.