Abid Bashir
Srinagar, Oct 16: National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah was Wednesday sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory. Omar was administered the oath of office and secrecy by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in a high-profile ceremony at the iconic SKICC on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar.
Along with Omar, Surinder Chowdhary was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of J&K while Satish Sharma and Javaid Rana, both from Jammu region, were also sworn in as the Cabinet Ministers. This shows that Omar has focused on Jammu region by inducting Surinder Choudhary as the Deputy CM besides Javaid Rana and Javaid Dar, who also belong to Jammu region. From Kashmir, two ministers were administered the oath—Sakina Itoo and Javaid Dar.
J&K got an elected government after a decade. In J&K, the last Assembly polls were held in 2014. On August 5, 2019, BJP led government at the Centre revoked Article 370 and sliced the erstwhile State of J&K into two UTs—J&K and Ladakh.
Top leadership of INDIA Block attended the oath ceremony that include Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, AICC Chief Malikarjun Kharge and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Samajwadi Party leader Akhlesh Yadav. Many other leaders from the INDIA Bloc also attended the oath ceremony on the invitation of NC chief Dr Farooq Abdullah.
The recently held Assembly polls saw NC emerging as a single largest party that bagged 42 seats on its own. NC got support from the four independent MLAs from Jammu region plus it also had CI(M’s) one seat in its kitty as well. Congress that fought along with NC in pre-poll alliance also extended support of its six seats to NC pushing the total tally of seats up to 53.
In Jammu, BJP dominated the scene by winning 29 seats. However, the number was far less from what was needed to form the government. In Kashmir, BJP failed to see Lotus bloom as the party couldn’t win even a single seat.
On Friday, Omar got letters of support from four independents and Congress after which he visited Rajbhawan to present the same and to stake the claim on government formation. On Sunday late evening, President Doupadi Murmu issued a notification to revoke the presidents’ rule in J&K paving way for the elected government to take a shape in the UT.
On Monday, LG Sinha invited Omar to form the government in J&K on October 16. NC chief Dr Farooq had extended invitations to over 50 dignitaries of INDIA Block of which many attended the Oath ceremony. The Chief Minister visited the Civil Secretariat in the afternoon where he was given a rousing reception and traditional guard of honour. He also chaired the meeting of officers of the administration.
Sources said that Omar will chair the first Cabinet meeting of the new government tomorrow at the Civil Secretariat. What remains to be seen whether the first Cabinet would pass the resolution seeking restoration of Statehood to J&K as promised by Omar.
