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Jammu: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday asked all its nine ministers in Jammu and Kashmir to tender their resignations. However, there will be no threat to BJP-PDP (Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party) coalition as the development will enable the BJP to bring in new faces in the two-year-old Mehbooba Mufti Cabinet. The BJP leaders said the party wants to introduce new faces and work for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. The development comes days after two BJP ministers - Chander Prakash Ganga and Choudhary Lal Singh - resigned from the state government in the wake of the controversy that they attended the Hindu Ekta Munch rally that sought to protect the accused in the gang-rape and murder case of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua. Ganga and Singh submitted their resignations to state unit chief Sat Sharma after major hue and cry.

Earlier today, Lal Singh held a roadshow from Jammu to Kathua, demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe to ensure justice for the victim. He also asked Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to resign. "If two ministers can sacrifice their posts in the interest of peace, those who are actually responsible for creating such an atmosphere should listen to their conscience," Singh said. The former forest minister said Mufti has failed to gauge the popular sentiment. He added: "We resigned because the perception created by the national media was not good. It portrayed the situation in a wrong way, which was not the case at all. It was portrayed that the entire Jammu region was siding with rapists."

"It (the perception) created problems for our prime minister and country. It was not good. So, we preferred to resign. We have not done anything wrong," Singh said. Meanwhile, news agency PTI said that as per top state government sources, the reshuffle will most probably take place on April 20. As per IANS, a core group meeting, chaired by party vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna, took the decision. "All BJP ministers have been directed to submit their resignations from the state council of ministers," the source said, clarifying: "All BJP ministers have resigned ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle and this does not in any way mean the BJP has pulled out of the government."

Sources in the Peoples Democratic Party told IANS that the resignations are a prelude to the BJP's reconstitution of their part of the council of ministers. This would not affect the continuation of the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir, added sources. Jammu and Kashmir can have a maximum of 25 ministers, including the CM. Out of 25, 14 portfolios are with the PDP and the remaining with the BJP.