In J&K coalition in the making, who’s who

Imran Ansari, 42
A first-time legislator, son of late Shia cleric and former minister Iftikhar Hussain Ansari. Imran has a masters degree in political science as well as a religious education from Damascus. A member of PDP’s political affairs committee, president of the All J&K Shia Association, and techno-savvy, Imran is seen as a certain inclusion in the cabinet.

Abdul Rehman Bhat (Veeri), 58
Close enough to the Muftis to be given the family’s Bijbehera seat, he has represented it four times. In the PDP’s first coalition, he was MoS for home, and is set to get a key portfolio or possibly become speaker.

Haseeb Drabu, 53
An economist in the running for finance minister, he is a first-time legislator, having worked earlier in the Planning Commission, as editor of Business Standard, and as chairman of J&K Bank and economic adviser to Mufti in his earlier tenure. He authored the PDP manifesto and was the main negotiator with the BJP.

Altaf Bukhari, 59
The first-time legislator used to be a prominent Srinagar businessmen who set up FIL Industries, one of the biggest to deal in horticulture products. The former National Horticulture Board director joined the PDP in 2005 and was made treasurer; today he looks after the party’s finances and is in its PAC and manifesto committee. Expected to be the party’s Srinagar face in the cabinet.

Abdul Haq Khan, 61
A former lawyer and public prosecutor who used to provide free legal services to the poor, he joined People’s Conference in 1983, then PDP in 2003 and became its general secretary. While campaigning, Mufti assured voters in Lolab Khan would be in his cabinet. This would give a representation to the Pahari tribe as well as Kupwara district.

Bashaarat Bukhari, 52
The former broadcaster was one of the brains behind Sharbeen, a current affairs programme on Radio Kashmir that was hugely popular among the rural population. Since joining the PDP in 2003, he has been elected to the Legislative Council, made the party’s youth president as well as Baramulla district president, and elected from Sangrama three times. The skilled orator could be the cabinet’s Baramulla face.

Mohd Ashraf Mir, 45
The former businessman has defeated Omar Abdullah from Sonawar. A business graduate whose family was into construction, he joined the PDP in 2003. Made district president for Srinagar, he went on to become the party’s first Srinagar face in the Legislative Council.

Asiea Naqash, 44
The party’s only woman candidate, and winner, is a law graduate from Kashmir University who joined the PDP in 2002, having begun as a social activist. Sister-in-law of PDP MP Tariq Hameed Karra.

Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, 44
When PDP was seen as a Kashmir-centric party, Zulfikar was among the first leaders outside the valley. Ali, second-time MLA from in Rajouri, is a business graduate with a Masters in law. If the PDP wants a Jammu face of the party in the cabinet, Ali will be the one.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Nirmal Singh, 55
A BJP veteran with roots in the ABVP and the RSS , jailed during Emergency. A history professor in Jammu University, currently a national executive committee member, he was earlier state president. In Ludhiana in the 1980s, he was RSS city karyawah. Singh, who has headed the PG department for history, has no administrative experience in governance, the latest election victory being his first. He is tipped to be deputy CM.

Kavinder Gupta, 55
Another RSS-ABVP-BJP veteran jailed during Emergency. A former ABVP secretary for Punjab, he moved to Jammu in 1982, and in 1984 led thousands on a march to the border at Suchetgarh to protest firing by Pakistani Rangers. Former BJYM state chief has held various posts in the BJP. A three-time Jammu mayor, he has become an MLA for the first time.

Bali Bhagat, 48
The BJP’s state general secretary is the most senior of its 25 party MLAs, having been elected from Ramban in 1996 too. His roots in the ABVP, he used to be its state secretary. Bhagat worked actively in mobilising people to fight militancy in the early 1990s.

Abdul Gani Kohli, 67
The retired technocrat, who has won his first election, is the BJP’s only Muslim MLA, and from a predominantly Hindu constituency, Kalakote. Son-in-law of veteran Gurjjar leader Mian Bashir, Kohli joined the BJP months before the polls. He had once lost on a Congress ticket.

Sunil Sharma, 39
A former BJP state secretary, the RSS man has won his first election from Muslim-dominated Kishtwar. He was working with security forces on counterinsurgency; his name cropped up in the communal flareup in Kishtwar in 2013. He lacks administrative experience.

Sofi Yousuf, 49
Legislative Council member is the BJP’s first elected leader from valley, and important to the party as a Kashmiri Muslim. A former policeman, he was injured in a militant attack in 1999.

Sham Choudhary, 54
The second-time MLA from Suchetgarh, is a mass leader from the farmers’ community but lacks administrative experience.

THE OTHER ALLY

Sajad Lone, 49
People’s Conference MLA from Handwara is a son of separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone. Educated in London, he was running a business in Delhi and Dubai before joining politics in 2002 following his father’s assassination. Before the elections, he met PM Narendra Modi and announced he would ally with the BJP. He will likely get a key cabinet portfolio, from the BJP quota.

THEIR TEAMS DELHI

PDP
Should NDA decide to give the PDP a cabinet representation, it would have three names to choose from — Mehbooba Mufti, Srinagar MP Tariq Hameed Karra and PDP founding member Muzaffar Hussain Beig.

J&K BJP
Around half a dozen state members in the party’s core committee in Delhi, including MoS Jitendra Singh, and MPs Jugal Kishore, Thupstan Chewang, Shamsher Singh Manhas.