Kavinder Gupta, who was until recently the speaker of the J&K assembly, has succeeded Nirmal Singh as the new deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after new ministers were sworn in at Jammu on Monday.
Alongside Gupta, a number of other BJP leaders were inducted into the Mehbooba Mufti cabinet, including Shakti Parihar (MoS), DK Manyal, Rajiv Jastrotia, Sunil Sharma (who has been elevated from MoS to cabinet rank) and Sant Sharma. Mohammed Ashraf Mir of the PDP has also been sworn in, as has Mohammed Khalil Band of PDP as a Minister of State.
SPEAKING TO REPORTERS, KAVINDER GUPTA SAID THAT HE WOULD WORK WITH FULL RESPONSIBILITY. THE PDP-BJP COALITION WILL WORK IN TANDEM FOR THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE, HE ADDED.
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The Monday swearing-in comes almost two weeks after all the previous BJP ministers in the state government resigned from their posts, tendering their resignations to the BJP state president. A few days before that, the two ministers from within their ranks who had attended the pro-rapist rallies following the Kathua rape and murder had been forced to resign after the Prime Minister guaranteed that the government would fulfill its responsibility and deliver justice to the victims of the Kathua and Unnao rapes.
Between the two sets of resignations of BJP ministers, its alliance partner, the PDP had issued a statement saying that the alliance would continue.
The BJP had offered a number of reasons for its ministers’ mass resignation, including the PDP’s alleged soft line on Pakistan and its terrorism. Sources had also told Republic TV that the resignations were a pressure tactic employed against the PDP with regard to the upcoming cabinet expansion.