Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: The National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah was on Wednesday sworn-in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, the first since its special status was scrapped relegating it to an Union Territory, while Mr Nayab Singh Saini was elected the leader of the BJP legislature party to be sworn-in as the chief minister of Haryana on Thursday.
Mr Abdullah, who hoped that the statehood of J and K would soon be restored, took his party colleague Surinder Kumar Choudhary, a prominent face from the Jammu region, as his deputy. The swearing-in ceremony conducted by the J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha held at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar was also attended by prominent leaders of the INDIA bloc in a bid to show an united face of the opposition.
Besides Mr Choudhary, four other legislators including Satish Sharma, Sakina Yatoo, Javid Dar and Javid Rana, also took oath as members of the Council of Ministers. Mr Choudhary had defeated BJP leader Ravinder Raina at Nowshera constituency in Jammu region. None of the Congress members joined the cabinet on Wednesday.
“Our endeavour will be to take everyone along,” Mr Abdullah told reporters after his swearing-in to justify why he chose Mr Choudhary as his deputy, saying he did so to give a voice to the people of the region and make his government inclusive. There are three vacancies and “they will gradually be filled”, Mr Abdullah said.
He said Mr Choudhary — a former member of the PDP and the BJP who emerged a giant killer when he defeated BJP’s J-K president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera by 7,819 votes — was chosen as deputy chief minister so people of Jammu do not feel left out from the government.
“I had said we will not allow Jammu to feel that they do not have a voice or representatives in this government. I have chosen a deputy chief minister from Jammu so that the people of Jammu feel that this government is as much theirs as it is of the rest,” he said.
In the 2014 assembly elections, Mr Raina won the Nowshera seat by defeating Mr Choudhary, who was then fighting on a PDP ticket, by a margin of over 10,000 votes. Mr Choudhary resigned from the PDP in 2022 to join the BJP before ending his over-a-year-long association with the party to join the NC in July last year.
This is the first elected government since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated from Jammu and Kashmir and the state was bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. In the assembly elections held this month, the National Conference won 42 out of the 90 seats while alliance partner Congress bagged six. Together, the two pre-poll allies hold a majority in the 95-member assembly — five members are to be nominated by the LG.
It’s the second term of Mr Abdullah as Chief Minister after 2009. He has also earned the distinction of becoming the first and relatively weak chief minister as the centre has passed on more powers to the LG after making it a Union Territory.
“I was the last Chief Minister to serve a full six-year term. Now I’ll be the first Chief Minister of the Union territory of J&K. The last distinction, as in the one of serving six years, I’m quite happy about. Being a CM of a Union Territory is a different matter altogether. It has its own challenges. I hope that the status of a Union Territory is a temporary one,” Mr Abdullah said. The Union Territory (UT) of J&K has just 10 Ministerial berths, including Chief Minister. None of the six Congress legislators took oath.
“None of the elected members took oath before J&K L-G Sinha. It is a mark of our protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not restoring Statehood to J&K,” Ghulam Ahmad Mir, Congress legislative party leader, said.
Among the opposition leaders to attend the ceremony were Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party president and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat, Members of Parliament Kanimozhi Karunanidhi of the DMK and Supriya Sule of the NCP (Sharad Pawar).
In Haryana, Mr Saini, who is the caretaker Chief Minister, was elected as the leader of BJP Legislature Party at a meeting held in Panchkula. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who participated in the meeting as the party observer, announced that Mr Saini was elected as the BJP Legislature Party leader unanimously.
“Today, the meeting of the BJP legislative party was held in which unanimously one proposal was received, placed by Krishan Bedi and Anil Vij, recommending the name of former Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. I declare Nayab Singh Saini as elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party,” Mr Shah added.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav was also part of the meeting as central observer. Besides Mr Shah and Mr Yadav, Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, BJP’s election in-charge for Haryana Dharmendra Pradhan and co-incharge for the State Biplab Deb also attended attending the meeting.
Mr Modi, Mr Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be among those who will attend the oath-taking event.