Omar pulls off a tightrope walk on J-K cabinet as ally Congress decides to sit out

After a poll verdict deeply divided on regional and religious lines gave his party, the National Conference (NC), and its allies the legislative strength to form the first government of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah has begun his term as chief minister on a conciliatory note.

Gesture for Jammu

Sworn-in as chief minister by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Srinagar’s SKICC, on Wednesday (October 16), Omar Abdullah has ensured that his council of ministers gives a sense of ownership and representation to the state’s Hindu-dominated Jammu division, which had overwhelmingly voted for the BJP in the recent elections.

The chief minister roped in as his deputy the newly elected MLA from Nowshera, Surinder Chaudhary, who had emerged as the “giant killer” in the polls after defeating BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir chief Ravinder Raina in the constituency that falls under the Jammu division’s Pir Panjal region. The other Hindu representative in Omar’s cabinet is Satish Sharma, who won from the Chhamb constituency in Jammu as an Independent candidate, ironically pushing NC ally Congress’s most prominent Dalit face and former deputy chief minister, Tara Chand, to the third position behind the BJP’s Rajeev Sharma.

Making up for Congress’ failures

Omar has also tried to give representation to each of the sub-regions of both Jammu and Kashmir divisions, with the Chenab Valley being the only exception. His other cabinet members include Sakeena Itoo, the only woman to make the ministerial cut, who won the DH Pora seat in South Kashmir’s Kulgam, Javid Ahmad Dar, the MLA from Rafiabad in North Kashmir’s Baramulla and Javed Rana, the winner from the tribal-reserved Mendhar seat in the Pir Panjal range.

Also read: Why Congress stayed out of Omar's new Jammu and Kashmir govt

The choice of his cabinet colleagues shows that Omar, handicapped by the Congress party’s rout in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, has given ample thought to how his government would engage with the region that the BJP has painted saffron against the expectations of many political observers.

The Congress, which had contested a bulk of the Jammu division seats as the NC’s ally was supposed to carry the weight of Hindu representation in the new government. Its failure to do so – all its six newly elected MLAs are Muslims, and only one of them is from the Jammu division – left Omar no choice but to rely on Chaudhary, a known party hopper, and Sharma, a greenhorn but one with a political pedigree since his father, late Madan Lal, was a two-term MP from Jammu and a three-term MLA.

Vacancies come in handy for Omar

On Wednesday too, as Omar accepted what his father and NC chief Farooq Abdullah called the “crown of thorns”, it was the Congress that soured the sombre celebrations with its decision to stay out of the government for now. Until Wednesday morning, word in Srinagar was that the Grand Old Party, which had won just six of the 38 seats it contested, would accept the lone ministerial berth offered to it by the NC.

With three vacancies in the council of ministers now, the Congress can, of course, be accommodated with a ministerial berth at a later date. Omar will also have two more ministerial slots to offer to his own MLAs, many of whom had been lobbying for a berth till late Tuesday, or to any of the other independent MLAs – two of them Hindus from constituencies in the Jammu plains – who have decided to support his fragile government.

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The manoeuvring space that the cabinet vacancies give the chief minister could hold him in good stead if and when dissent, resentment or aspirations begin to test the loyalties of his own NC MLAs or of the independents.

Congress plays spoilsport

The Congress’s decision to stay out of the government, however, augurs well neither for the new chief minister nor for the Grand Old Party. The Congress leadership, which was present in full force at the swearing-in ceremony, offered no plausible justification for its decision.

The official explanation, enunciated by Tariq Hameed Karra, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief and newly-elected MLA from Srinagar’s Central Shalteng, that the party was “unhappy” with the Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood not being restored has convinced no one. After all, the Congress knew all along that statehood for Jammu and Kashmir would not be restored so soon and it had, along with the NC, made this demand a centrepiece of its poll campaign.

Congress sources say the party’s reason to offer “outside support” to the Omar Abdullah-led government had more to do with the pulls and pressures within its tiny six-member legislative bloc than with any rift with the NC over being offered just a single ministerial berth.

1 ministerial berth, 6 Congress MLAs

“Everyone knows that with just six MLAs, we are neither in a position to demand a cabinet berth nor to dictate terms to the government over its business. The decision is because almost each of our six MLAs wanted that lone ministerial berth for himself. The NC was comfortable with inducting Ghulam Ahmed Mir (former Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief and MLA from South Kashmir’s Dooru) but Karra wanted to be a minister. Two of our other MLAs (Nizamuddin Bhat from north Kashmir’s Bandipora and Peerzada Mohammed Syed from South Kashmir’s Anantnag) have also served as cabinet ministers in the past and wanted to be ministers again,” a senior Congress leader told The Federal.

Also read: Bad decisions, dull campaign: How Congress ‘gifted’ Jammu to BJP

Karra, however, denied lobbying for a ministerial position and told The Federal, “we had our own considerations to weigh in... we may join the cabinet at a later stage; there is no question of a rift with the NC or within our party and we are fully with the government or else our high command would not have come for the ceremony today”.

‘Congress sending out a wrong message’

Sources said the Congress’s decision has left the NC leadership of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah a tad cut up with their ally. “It sends a very wrong message. On the one hand, the Congress leadership talks about unity of the (INDIA) alliance and on the other, it chooses to sit out of the government despite fighting the elections in a pre-poll alliance. They have created an unnecessary controversy and given the BJP a chance to claim that all is not well in the alliance from day one,” a NC leader said.

A newly-elected NC MLA dubbed the Congress’s move as being “typical of an indecisive and weak leadership”. “It has been a week since the results. They knew all along that they won’t get more than one ministerial berth given their legislative strength. Couldn’t the top leadership decide who it would be and make sure that the other five MLAs fall in line... they will regret this decision; it is not good for the alliance and it is not good for the Congress also; even with one minister, they could have participated in the affairs of the government better and got things done which they had promised during the election,” the NC MLA said.

Congress weighs options

A section of the Congress believes that by keeping out of the government, the party leadership could either be “buying time to evolve consensus over its choice of minister” or “calculating whether being outside government gives the party more bargaining power to get its poll promises fulfilled while not attracting the any criticism for the government’s actual decision-making”.

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The latter of these will not be easy for the chief minister anyway because of the unprecedented powers over administration that the Jammu and Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor now has compared to the period when it was a full state and Omar was last chief minister.

Irrespective of what the real reason behind Congress’s choice may be, its move has left a bad taste for Abdullah on a day when he pulled off an otherwise well-balanced act on what was clearly a tight-rope walk.