New Delhi: The Congress party has announced Ghulam Nabi Azad as the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, replacing Mufti Mohammed Sayeed of the People's Democratic Party under a power-sharing agreement.
Azad, at present Union Minister for Urban Development, will be sworn-in as chief minister at a ceremony at Srinagar on November 2.
In his first comments after the newsbreak, Azad said he would strengthen the ongoing peace process.
With Azad set to become the chief minister, a Congress leader would be at the helm of affairs of the sensitive border state after a gap of some 30 years and the first after the outbreak of militancy in 1989.
The last Congressman who had held the post was Mir Qasim who stepped down in 1975 in the wake of the Indira Gandhi-Shiekh Abdullah accord.
A Zoology postgraduate from Kashmir University, Azad started his career in politics in 1973 as Block President and became District president of Congress in Doda in 1975.
He rose through the ranks to become president of the All India Youth Congress, a parliamentarian and one of the longest serving national general secretaries of the Congress party.
Azad has worn many hats in the past as minister of various ministries like Parliamentary Affairs, Home Affairs, Food and Civil Supplies and Civil Aviation and Tourism.
(with inputs from PTI)
Comments
0 comment