People's Democratic Party leader Muzaffar Hussain Baigh on Monday staged a comeback in the Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet led by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, more than a year after he was unceremoniously removed by his party.
Baigh was administered the oath of office at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhavan by Governor S K Sinha. 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.
With Baigh's induction, the strength of the council of ministers in the Congress-led coalition government has risen to 22. The number of Cabinet ministers has risen to 14 after his induction. There are also eight ministers of state in the present government.
Baigh, who represents Baramulla assembly constituency, was looking after finance, planning and law ministries during the stint in the Mufti Sayeed government and later in Azad's Cabinet. He had resigned on September 3, 2006.
