Omar Abdullah was sworn in on Wednesday as the first Chief Minister of the newly formed Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir after the National Conference emerged victorious in the first assembly elections in the region since the nullification of Article 370. The oath was administered to Abdullah and other ministers in the council of ministers inside Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), Srinagar by the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
The ministers who stood beside Omar Abdullah in the formation of this historic government are Sakina Itoo, Javeed Rana, Surinder Choudhary, Javeed Dar, and Satish Sharma. This means that they have taken the oath at a time when there is a comeback to an elected government in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir after it was reorganized into two union territories in the year 2019.
During the elections held in three rounds on September 13, September 20, and September 27, 90 assembly seats were up for grabs as voters exercised their franchise; the counting of votes was completed on October 8. National Conference, in conjunction with the Congress, got an aggregate number of 48 seats, leading the National Conference-headed alliance. The Congress was able to secure only six parliamentary seats it had previously dominated the politics in the region.
To prevent any inconveniences, loose securities around the venue of the ceremony, which is the SKICC, had to be tightened, bearing in mind the significance of this political occasion. It was the leadership of Abdullah that brought a major change in the history of Jammu and Kashmir in terms of governance structure – it laid the foundation of ushering a new wave of governance in J & K state known as the ‘elected representative syndrome’ to pursue the cause and concerns of the populace. Standing as the first elected Chief Minister since these constitutional adjustments, Abdullah’s administration shares the burden of reconciliation and stability in a state that has experienced much turmoil in the past few years.
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