Srinagar: The newly elected members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly were administered oath on Monday by Pro-tem Speaker Mubarak Gul, with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah taking the pledge in the Kashmiri language.
The 54-year-old Leader of the House was the first MLA to be administered the oath.
Omar Abdullah, son of Farooq Abdullah and his British wife Mollie Abdullah, had often faced criticism for not being able to speak his native language.
While the third-generation politician from the Abdullah family is fluent in English, his fluency in vernaculars like Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri was poor at the start of his political career in the late 1990s.
However, during his first tenure as chief minister from 2009 to 2014, Omar Abdullah took lessons to improve his speaking skills in these three languages. And on Monday, he took the oath as MLA in Kashmiri.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary took oath in English.
The oath-taking ceremony of the MLAs marks an end to the six-year-long legislative hiatus.
Congratulating the newly elected MLAs, the Pro-tem Speaker expressed hope that they would raise the issues related to the public welfare in a total professional manner, an official press release said.
It said Gul exhorted the legislators to work collectively so that the journey takes a smooth and steady pace for the welfare of the people.
He said that the Omar Abdullah-led government will take everyone along for steering Jammu and Kashmir towards new heights of peace, progress and prosperity. He also thanked all the concerned departments for making all the arrangements for smooth conduct of the oath ceremony.
There are 51 first-time members including BJP MLA from Kishtwar Shagun Parihar, who is the youngest member at 29. The NC veteran and MLA from Chrar-e-Sharief, Abdul Rahim Rather, is the oldest at 80.
Rather and party colleague Ali Mohammad Sagar (MLA Khanyar) have been elected to the assembly for a record seven terms.
While Sagar has been a member of the Legislative Assembly since 1983, Rather started his long stint as a legislator in 1977. However, the former finance minister lost the 2014 assembly elections.
The National Conference (NC) emerged as the single largest party in the assembly polls held in September and October.
The oldest political party of Jammu and Kashmir has formed the government with external support from the Congress, which has six MLAs.
Five independent MLAs, one MLA from the AAP, and the CPI(M) have also extended their support.
The BJP with 29 seats is the second-largest party — its best-ever performance in J&K. (With additional inputs from PTI)
CM Abdullah vacates Budgam assembly seat, retains Ganderbal
Srinagar, Oct 21: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has vacated the Budgam assembly seat and retained the Ganderbal constituency, Pro-tem Speaker Mubarak Gul announced in the House on Monday.
Abdullah won both the seats in the recently held assembly polls. The Ganderbal seat is considered an Abdullah family stronghold.
The 54-year-old Abdullah was an MLA from Ganderbal from 2009 to 2014 during his first tenure as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
With this, the strength of the National Conference in the 95-member house has been reduced to 41 but the party still enjoys a comfortable majority with the support of six Congress MLA, five Independents and one MLA each of the AAP and the CPI(M).
Omar Posted on X
“I’m eternally grateful to the people of Budgam for voting for me. I’m sorry the rules dictated that I had to vacate one of the two seats. I promise the voters of Budgam that I will always consider myself their representative & will work for them over the next five years to resolve their problems to the best extent possible.”
