Srinagar: National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) on Wednesday (October 16).
J&K Pradesh Congress, however, stayed away from the ceremony in protest against the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government’s denial of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
The ceremony at SKICC was attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi, NC president Farooq Abdullah, and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti among others.
Leaders of INDIA bloc members CPI(M)’s Prakash Karat, CPI’s D. Raja, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, DMK’s Kanimozhi and NCP’s Supriya Sule also attended the event.
Power move to assuage Jammu’s concerns?
Besides Omar, Surinder Kumar Choudhary, who defeated J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina from Nowshera constituency in the recently concluded assembly election, took oath as the deputy chief minister.
Satish Sharma, who defeated BJP candidate from Chhamb constituency in the Hindu heartland of Jammu, was also administered the oath of office.
The induction of Choudhary and Sharma into the cabinet, who won from the BJP strongholds, seems to be a proverbial killing of two birds with one arrow, aimed at sending a symbolic message to the saffron party while addressing simmering concerns in Jammu region about the lack of representation of J&K’s largest minority in the new government.
Also read: Detention Centre to Harbinger of Democracy: The Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre
While the BJP had emerged as the second largest with 29 seats by sweeping the Hindu heartland of Kathua, Jammu, Samba and Udhampur districts in Jammu region, the party could not win enough seats to form the government in J&K.
Senior NC leader, Sakina Itoo, who was elected from Damhal-Hanjipora assembly constituency in Kulgam district, Javed Rana, the newly elected NC MLA of Mendhar in Poonch and Javed Ahmad Dar who won from north Kashmir’s Rafiabad constituency, were also administered the oath of office.
J&K Congress protests
Former J&K Congress chief G.A. Mir said that six newly elected MLAs of the party were not going to take the oath of office on Wednesday in protest against the denial of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
“We did not contest this election for power but to restore the rights of the people. The question of ministerial posts is irrelevant at this point. Our priority remains the restoration of statehood,” Mir told a local news gatherer.
However, ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Abdullah said that the ministerial vacancies, which are capped at 10 in the UT of J&K, were going to be filled “going ahead as we are in talks with Congress and also from within my own team.”
The Wire has earlier reported that the party was likely to get two cabinet berths along with the post of Speaker and Deputy Speaker of J&K assembly.
Before arriving at the SKICC which served as a detention centre for Kashmir’s political elite in the aftermath of the reading down of Article 370, Abdullah drove down from his Gupkar residence on Wednesday morning to Mazar-e-Anwar, the graveyard of NC founder Sheikh Abdullah and his wife Akbar Jehan Abdullah in Hazratbal locality of Srinagar.
Wearing his trademark Sozni cap, Abdullah offered prayers and floral tributes to his grandparents.
Also read: Abdullah’s Statement Creates Doubts Over Whether NC Will Move Resolution Against Article 370 Move
After a crushing defeat in the recent Lok Sabha elections at the hands of Awami Ittehad Party president Engineer Rashid, Abdullah has made a strong comeback to J&K’s politics by winning both Budgam and Ganderbal constituencies from where he contested the first assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Before the swearing-in ceremony, Abdullah admitted that there were going to be “challenges” in his tenure as chief minister of a union territory, “I was the last chief minister to serve a full six-year term. Now I will be the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is a different matter altogether. It has its own challenges,” Abdullah said.
The NC won 42 seats in the three-phase assembly election which was held after a decade and more than five years after Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated and demoted into two union territories.
The Congress, which was in an alliance with the NC as part of the INDIA bloc, won six seats while CPI(M), AAP and some independent candidates also extended their support to the coalition, giving it a comfortable majority in the house of 90 members.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under President’s rule since 2018 when the BJP withdrew from the coalition government with Mehbooba Mufti.
