Omar Abdullah takes oath as Jammu & Kashmir CM, Surinder Choudhary his Deputy
National Conference’s Omar Abdullah on Wednesday took oath as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir as the Union Territory got its first elected government after six years.
Party MLA Surinder Singh Choudhary, who emerged as a giantkiller after defeating state BJP chief Ravinder Raina, was appointed Deputy Chief Minister, giving representation to Jammu in the new government.
The Congress opted out of the new Cabinet for now, citing its demand for statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, as promised by the Centre, and said it would continue to fight for it.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath to Omar Abdullah at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar on the banks of the famous Dal Lake.
The ceremony was attended by senior leaders of the INDIA bloc including Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, DMK’s Kanimozhi and NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule.
Five MLAs took oath – Satish Sharma (Independent), Sakina Itoo, Javid Dar, Surinder Singh Choudhary and Javid Rana (all from the National Conference). Four Cabinet posts remain vacant and will be filled once the expansion takes place.
This is Omar Abdullah’s second stint as Chief Minister, and he is the first to take office after the scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and the erstwhile state becoming a Union Territory in 2019.
Ahead of his swearing-in ceremony, Omar Abdullah paid tributes at the mausoleum of National Conference founder and his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah.
Omar Abdullah served as the Chief Minister from 2009 to 2014 when Jammu and Kashmir, then a state, was ruled by the National Conference-Congress alliance.