Jammu(IANS) : Former deputy chief minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig is likely to return to the Jammu and Kashmir government, political sources said Saturday.
This follows reconciliation between two main partners of the ruling coalition – the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — after months of acrimony.
The differences were sparked over various issues, including a PDP demand for troops cut in the Kashmir Valley.
The PDP accused Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of not providing good governance and had even threatened to pull out of the government.
According to sources close to Azad and PDP, the parties have patched up.
As a first step, the chief minister sent a letter Thursday to his predecessor and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed urging him to nominate his party members for induction into the council of ministers.
Azad is likely to expand and reshuffle his ministry in the next few days. The PDP has a seat vacant in its quota.
“As far as appointing a (PDP) nominee (for the ministerial berth) is concerned, that is more or less settled,” said a senior PDP leader.
PDP, according to the sources, has decided that Baig will be its nominee for a cabinet berth. Baig was the finance and planning minister in the PDP-Congress coalition from November 2002 to November 2005 when the PDP handed over reins to the Congress.
After Azad took over from Mufti, Baig was made the deputy chief minister but was stripped of the post in August 2006.