J&K: 'Cabinet reshuffle has nothing to do with Kathua incident,' says Ram Madhav

On Monday, commenting on the cabinet reshuffle in Jammu and Kashmir Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, "Cabinet reshuffle takes place depending on circumstances of the past and present."

Ram Madhav (Image: ANI)

New Delhi: "The cabinet reshuffle (in J&K) has nothing to do with the Kathua incident," said Ram Madhav of the BJP on Monday. "Our government has completed three years and we decided to give a chance to new faces. 5 members of the party will be sworn-in as ministers today," Madhav added, reported news agency ANI. On Monday, commenting on the cabinet reshuffle in Jammu and Kashmir Union Minister Jitendra Singh said, "Cabinet reshuffle takes place depending on circumstances of the past and present." "Cabinet reshuffle takes place depending on circumstances of the past & present & also taking cognizance of the challenges that lie ahead in the future. This is a very normal thing in any democratic setup," news agency ANI quoted Singh saying. Meanwhile, ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh has tendered his resignation to pave the way for state Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta to take over the post in the PDP-BJP government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, reported news agency PTI. BJP's state unit chief Sat Sharma, MLAs from Kathua and adjoining Sambha Rajiv Jasrotia and Devinder Kumar Manyal are among the BJP faces who will be inducted into the state government as Cabinet ministers, officials said. On April 17, the saffron party had asked all its nine ministers in the PDP-BJP government in the state to submit their resignations. The move was taken to enable bringing in new faces in the two-year-old state government. It may be recalled that earlier this month, two BJP ministers (Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga) had to resign from the government. They took part in a rally in support of those accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua. Including the chief minister, the state can have a maximum of 25 ministers. 14 portfolios are with the PDP and the remaining with the BJP.