Jammu: PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baigh will be inducted in the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet led by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad tomorrow, more than a year after he was unceremoniously removed by his party, leading to strains with its coalition partner Congress.

The decision to re-induct Baigh into the cabinet at the post, virtually snatched by the PDP in September 2006 as the party went to town saying it had lost faith in him, was taken at a meeting between Azad and PDP leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed last evening here, sources said. Baigh would be administered the oath of office at a small ceremony at Raj Bhavan in the morning by Governor Lt Gen S K Sinha, the sources said.

Baigh may be appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister but is unlikely to get the prestigious post of Finance and Planning, the sources said, adding the two key portfolios may continue to remain with Mufti's trusted lieutenant, Tariq Hamid Qara. There would be no other leader swearing-in tomorrow as the Congress was unable to finalise the three names that could be given a place in the ministry, they said.

They said Baigh may get the portfolio of Forest and Environment, a ministry which sparked off tension between the ruling alliance partners after the Chief Minister found several irregularities in the tendering procedures. Baigh, after mending the burnt bridges with Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba, was being considered for a minister in the cabinet over Ghulam Hassan Mir, an MLA and founder member of PDP.

Source : PTI