J&K: Omar Abdullah nominates Mehbooba Mufti, Kailash Satyarthi for Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday nominated his political opponent and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and Nobel Peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi among nine people to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan'.

Omar, who was nominated by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan to the campaign, launched by the Prime Minister earlier this month, had thanked the actor on microblogging site Twitter and asked him to watch the space for the names of the nine people he would nominate.

Apart from Mufti and Satyarthi, Omar nominated actress Deepika Padukone and politicians Milind Deora and Bayjant Jay Panda to the campaign. "Now for my nominations to pick up the broom & get sweeping - Sara Pilot, @k_satyarthi, @deepikapadukone, @milinddeora, @PandaJay," Omar wrote on Twitter.com.

Sara Pilot, Omar's sister is married to Congress leader Sachin Pilot. Omar also nominated television journalist Arnab Goswami to the campaign. "Arnab Goswami, @sidin, Mehbooba Mufti, @Raheelk. Please get cleaning & nominate another 9 people. :-)," he said.

The Chief Minister himself got into the cleaning act when he picked up a broom and joined the Srinagar Municipal Corporation team on their night cleaning operation in the flood-hit areas of the city on Wednesday.

Omar received praise from the Prime Minister for the act, who said the chief minister's efforts would strengthen the mission. "Wonderful effort by @abdullah_omar ! His efforts towards Swachh Bharat will inspire people of J&K and will strengthen the Mission," Modi wrote on Twitter.com.

The chief minister responded by saying he was happy to do his "bit to help" in contributing to cleaning the country. "@narendramodi thank you for the mention. I hope we can actually all contribute to cleaning India. Happy to do my bit to help," Omar said.