Omar Abdullah took oath as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday amid tight security following his National Conference party’s win in the recently held Union Territory elections.
National Conference’s Surinder Kumar Choudhary also took oath as the Union Territory’s Deputy Chief Minister.
Omar is the first Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir since 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated, and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union Territories.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath to Omar and his ministers at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre in Srinagar.
Before today’s oath ceremony, Omar Abdullah paid obeisance at the Mazar-e-Anwar of ‘Sher-e-Kashmir’ Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in Srinagar.
Following Omar Abdullah, three ministers from Jammu and two from Kashmir took oath.
Other ministers sworn into office included Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary, National Conference leaders Javed Ahmed Dar, Javed Dar, Sakina Itoo, and Independent MLA Satish Sharma.
Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi reached Srinagar today to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Omar Abdullah. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti also participated in the ceremony.
BLOC leaders to India include the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav; the Communist Party of India (Marxist) central committee’s interim leader Prakash Karat; working president for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Suriya Slue; the deputy general secretary of Dravid Mun Netra Kashagan (DMK) Kanimozhi and CPI(M) general secretary D Raja. They, too, reached Srinagar on Monday.
