A federal minister from India's ruling Congress party will be the new puppet chief minister of the Indian occupied Kashmir, in line with a power sharing pact with a regional party, a Congress spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will replace Mufti Mohammad Syed of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), who took power in the troubled state following a historic state election three years ago.
The Congress and the PDP, who run a coalition government in the disputed Himalayan region, had agreed to share power after they ousted the National Conference party. "The Congress president has decided that for the next three years Ghulam Nabi Azad will be sent there under a Congress government," Congress Spokeswoman Ambika Soni told reporters in New Delhi. Azad, 56, will be sworn in on November 2.