Omar Abdullah takes oath as J&K CM, no Congress in 5-member cabinet

New Delhi, Oct 16 (IANS) National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah, on Wednesday, took oath as the Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

With this, he became the first CM of the J&K UT which lost its statehood after the reorganisation and the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.

Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office to Omar Abdullah at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar.

Along with him, five MLAs, including an Independent, took oath as Cabinet Ministers while there was no Congress representation in the new government.

The Independent MLA who took oath as the minister is Satish Sharma. He defeated former Deputy CM and senior Congress leader Tara Chand from the Chhamb Assembly seat in the Jammu district.

The leaders from the INDIA bloc, including Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, CPI leader D. Raja and others attended the ceremony.

The National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah was also there. He had declared that his son, Omar Abdullah would be the CM soon after the trends during the counting on October 8 showed his party was leading.

Jammu and Kashmir Congress Chief Tariq Hameed Karra said that the Congress was not joining the ministry at the moment. After failing to get two ministerial berths in the cabinet, the Congress decided to support the NC government from the outside.

After taking the oath, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will chair a meeting of all the administrative secretaries at the Srinagar Civil Secretariat.

It is important to mention that no senior leader of the National Conference has been able to get a berth in the cabinet

Security was enhanced in Srinagar city ahead of the oath-taking ceremony.