J&K CM Omar Abdullah makes Jammu MLA Surinder Choudhary his deputy

Srinagar, Oct 16 (IANS) Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the 14th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar.

Five members of the J&K Legislative Assembly were also sworn in as the members of Omar Abdullah’s council of ministers.

These are Surinder Choudhary, MLA from Nowshera in Rajouri district. He defeated the J&K BJP president, Ravinder Raina in the Assembly elections.

Sakina Itoo, MLA from D.H.Pora constituency in Kulgam district of the Valley. Sakina has also served as a minister in Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah-headed governments in the past.

Satish Sharma, who won the Assembly election as an Independent candidate from the Chhamb constituency of Jammu district, took oath as a minister. He defeated former Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader, Tara Chand.

Javaid Rana, MLA from Poonch constituency of Poonch district in Jammu division. Rana has become a minister for the first time in the J&K Council of Ministers.

Javaid Ahmad Dar, MLA from Rafiabad constituency of Baramulla district. Dar has been a junior minister in the past in Omar Abdullah's government.

Later the CM told media that Surinder Choudhary would be the deputy Chief Minister. The step has been taken to give greater representation to the Jammu division, where the NC has won four seats, and Congress just one.

With an elected strength of 90 MLAs, the J&K government can have only nine ministers in addition to the chief minister.

Interestingly, no Congress MLA has been inducted into the Omar Abdullah headed council of ministers although the NC and the Congress fought the Assembly polls in alliance.

Sources in the Congress said that after failing to get two berths in the council of ministers, the party has now decided to support Omar Abdullah's government from outside.

After administering the oath of office and secrecy to the chief minister and his 5-member council of ministers, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha took a group photograph with the CM and his council of ministers.

The oath ceremony was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and K.C.Venugopal.

Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader & MP Sanjay Singh, DMK MP Kanimozhi, CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat, Lok Sabha member and daughter of Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, and CPI leader D.Raja also attended the ceremony.

Former J&K Chief Minister and president of PDP Mehbooba Mufti, and Tarun Chugh, national general secretary of the BJP also attended the oath-taking ceremony.

Dr Farooq Abdullah came with his wife Mollie Abdullah and daughter while two sons of Omar Abdullah also attended the oath ceremony.

All elected MLAs were present in addition to senior civil and police officers during the function. The function was conducted by Mandeep Bhandari, principal secretary to the Lt Governor. He requested all the dignitaries present during the function to join the L-G for a cup of tea on the lawns of the SKICC.

Omar Abdullah is now scheduled to take a meeting of all the administrative secretaries of the UT administration at the civil secretariat in Srinagar. This would be Omar Abdullah’s first official attendance after being sworn in as the chief minister.