‘Show me one Muslim minister at Centre, BJP-ruled States’: J&K Deputy CM

J&K Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary. File

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a meme war at the ruling National Conference (NC) over recent Cabinet expansion and protests within the party, J&K Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Thursday (October 29, 2026) said the BJP, “which has no Muslim minister in the Centre or BJP-ruled States, has no right to criticise the NC”.

The BJP’s official handle on Instagram, with 338K followers, in J&K released a series of memes, showing J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah fighting own MLAs like Mubarak Gul and Abdul Majeed Bhat Larmi by editing the shots from gory Bobby Deol-starrer movie ‘Animal’. In another meme, the BJP edited characters from the comedy drama ‘Panchayat’ to show the heartburn the Cabinet expansion caused within the NC legislators, saying “endgame of the NC begins now”.

Countering the criticism and BJP spokesman Sunil Sethi’s description of “National Conference as Muslim Conference” over dropping a Hindu minister, Deputy CM Choudhary asked the BJP to identify one Muslim minister in the BJP Cabinet.

“Is there any Muslim who is a minister at the Centre or BJP-ruled States in the country. If it is about ‘Sab Ka Sath, Sab Ka Vikas’, why is there no Muslim minister in the BJP?. The party spokesman has no right point fingers at the NC,” said Mr. Choudhary.

The J&K Deputy CM also objected to BJP criticism over no Hindu representation in the Omar Abdullah cabinet. “I am a Jat from Rajouri’s Nowshera. Am I not a Hindu or Sanathani? Whatever I have become is because of Maa Vaishno and Maa Durga. The BJP needs to clarify if Jatts qualify to be Hindus or not. It should also tell us which ‘baradari’ are Hindus in J&K,” said Mr. Choudhary.

J&K witnessed a Cabinet expansion on October 27, with four new faces joining the Omar Abdullah cabinet. One Minister, Satish Sharma from Jammu, was dropped to accommodate more faces from the Kashmir Valley, where the party swept the 2024 Assembly elections and won 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly.

politics / Jammu and Kashmir / Bharatiya Janata Party