Finance
On Wednesday, National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah took oath as Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
With this, he became the first Chief Minister of the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, which lost its statehood following the restructuring and repeal of Article 370 in 2019.
At Srinagar’s Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC), Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office to Omar Abdullah.
Along with him, five MLAs, including an Independent, took oath as Cabinet Ministers, despite the lack of Congress presence in the new government.
Satish Sharma, an independent MLA, took the oath of office as minister. He defeated Tara Chand, the former Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress politician, for the Chhamb Assembly seat in Jammu district.
The INDIA bloc’s leaders, including Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, CPI leader D. Raja, and others, attended the ceremony.
Farooq Abdullah, the National Conference chief, was also present. He had stated that his son, Omar Abdullah, would be the CM immediately after the trends during the October 8 counting revealed that his party was leading.
Tariq Hameed Karra, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress Chief, stated that the Congress would not be entering the ministry at this time. After failing to secure two cabinet positions, the Congress chose to support the NC government from the outside.
Following the oath, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will convene a meeting of all administrative secretaries at the Srinagar Civil Secretariat.
It is worth noting that no prominent leader of the National Conference has been able to gain a position in the cabinet.
Security was tightened in Srinagar ahead of the oath-taking event.
Source:IANS
