Omar Abdullah, 14th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, took oath 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 members of Omar Abdullah's council of ministers
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 had won the Assembly election as an Independent candidate from the Chhamb constituency of Jammu district, took oath as a minister. Satish Sharma had defeated former Deputy Chief Minister and senior Congress leader, Tara Chand.
Javaid Rana MLA from Poonch constituency of Poonch district in Jammu Division. For the first time he is to be the part of the J&K Council of Ministers.
Javaid Ahmad Dar MLA from Rafiabad constituency of Baramulla district. He was also a junior Minister earlier as well in Omar Abdullah's government.
This was done in order to bring better representation in Jammu division where NC has bagged four seats and Congress merely one.
Subsequently, CM stated before the media that Surinder Choudhary would become the deputy chief minister. In J&K govt., there can be nine other ministers apart from the chief minister in the strength of an elected 90 MLAs.
Notably, 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.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha took a group photograph with the CM and his council of ministers after administering oath of office and secrecy to the chief minister and his 5-member council of ministers.
Attending the oath ceremony were 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 joined 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 attended the function while senior civil and police officers also attended it. The function was presided over by Mandeep Bhandari, principal secretary to the Lt Governor. He requested all the dignitaries present in the function to join the L-G on the lawns of the SKICC for a cup of tea.
Omar Abdullah is also scheduled to address 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 he took oath as chief minister.
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