Omar Abdullah takes oath as Chief Minister of J&K; Surinder Choudhary as Deputy

JKNC leader Omar Abdullah on October 16 took oath as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar. During the event, Surinder Choudhary took oath as Deputy Chief Minister.
J&K LG Manoj Sinha administered the oath of office and secrecy to Omar Abdullah along with five ministers. The five ministers who took oath are Sakina Itoo, Javeed Rana, Surinder Choudhary, Javed Dar, Satish Sharma.
Meanwhile, the Congress said that it has decided not to join the council of ministers in the newly formed J&K government as the party was “unhappy” that statehood was not restored to the Union territory.
In a statement by JKPCC Chief Tariq Hameed Karra, he said that “Congress Party is not joining the Ministry in Jammu and Kashmir government at the moment. Congress has strongly demanded from the Centre to restore Statehood to J&K, besides the Prime Minister has time and again in public meetings promised the same. But the Statehood has not been restored to J&K. We are unhappy therefore we are not joining the Ministry at the moment, JKPCC Chief added and said Congress Party shall continue to fight for restoration of Statehood.”
On the other hand, CM Abdullah has expressed optimism that statehood will be regainsed soon. Before taking oath as CM, he told PTI that all ministerial vacancies would not be filled at once but will be filled going ahead as “we are in talks with Congress and also from within my own team.”
He added, “I sincerely believe that we will not be a UT for a long time. Therefore this so called half state is very much a temporary phase and we will be a full state soon.”
Meanwhile, the president’s rule was withdrawn in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. The Home Ministry in a gazette notification stated, “In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 73 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019) read with Articles 239 and 239A of the Constitution of India, the order dated the 31st October, 2019 in relation to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall stand revoked immediately before the appointment of the chief minister under Section 54 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019”
(With inputs from agencies)