Baby Chakraborty :- After six long years, Omar Abdullah took oath as Chief Minister. National Conference MLA Surinder Kumar Chowdhury took oath as Deputy Chief Minister. Apart from Omar Abdullah and Surinder R Kumar Chowdhury, the MLAs who took oath were National Conference’s Sakina Itu, Javid Dar, independent candidate Satish Sharma, and Javid Rana at the swearing-in ceremony held at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Center in Srinagar.
After the withdrawal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, the NCC-Congress alliance formed the government after defeating the BJP in the first election. Congress in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir Bharat Singh Solanki said “Discussions are going on between the National Conference and the Congress. A decision will be announced after the discussions are over. However, no Congress MLA will take oath today until the issue is resolved. Will the Congress be part of the government or will it provide support from outside?” It is also being talked about.” With this announcement of the Congress, the uproar has started in the political circles. Congress is supposed to be a part of this government as the National Conference and Congress contested the elections together in Jammu and Kashmir. But today’s announcement by the Congress ahead of the swearing-in shows a clear indication of the alliance’s tussle as no Congress MLA has been sworn in as a minister because the cabinet is yet to finalize the discussion on the sharing of ministries. Congress can provide support from outside for this.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Congress president Tariq Hamid Kara said that “even if Hath camp wins six seats, they will not join the cabinet for the time being”. The Prime Minister promised in the public meeting that Jammu and Kashmir should be given back its statehood. But Jammu and Kashmir was not restored to its state title. We are not happy about it. And so Congress will not join the government at the moment and will continue to fight this is what the Congress has demanded from the Centre.
Jammu and Kashmir Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha presided over the swearing-in ceremony. Incidentally, Omar Abdullah took oath as the Chief Minister for the second time. Earlier, he was the chief minister of the valley from 2009 to 2014. It was a state then. But the previous government that Omar was in was a coalition of Congress and National Conference. But now Congress is not in government.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Vadhara Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were present in this oath-taking ceremony.
