JOIN USTassaduq Mufti, the younger brother of Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, on Thursday took an oath of office and secrecy as a minister during a swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Jammu.
Tassaduq, an alumnus of the American Film Institute, was nominated to the State Legislative Council last week against a vacancy caused by the resignation of Yuvraj Vikramaditya Singh, who had resigned from the Upper House of the State Legislature and the ruling People's Democratic Party.
The swearing-in ceremony, in which besides Tasaduq, another PDP legislator Javeed Mustafa Mir were administered an oath of office and secrecy by Governor N N Vohra, was attended by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, her council of ministers and other high- profile leaders from the ruling PDP and the BJP.
This was the second expansion in the council of ministers that earlier this year saw the induction of PDP heavyweight Syed Altaf Bukhari.
With the joining of Tassaduq and Javaid, the number of ministers in the PDP-BJP coalition government has reached to 25-the maximum permissible limit in the council of ministers.
As per the J&K Constitution, the strength of council of ministers should not exceed 20% of the total the strength of the state legislature-89 MLAs and 36 MLCs.
Tasaduq, the youngest of the four siblings, had stayed away from politics before his father's death in January 2016.
He is the third member of the Mufti family to join politics after his father and sister. Tasaduq and Mehbooba's maternal uncle Sartaj Madni is a senior leader of ruling PDP.
Tasaduq formally joined the PDP in January this year and was the PDP candidate from Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, for which elections have been deferred by the Election Commission.
Later, he was appointed as coordinator of the chief minister's grievance cell, a platform set up by the government for redressal of public grievances.