 "Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other leaders at the swearing-in ceremony of new J&K government, in Srinagar, Wednesday, Oct 16, 2024. (PTI Photo)")
National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah took oath as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, heading the first elected government in the Union Territory since 2019 when its special status was revoked. “I’m back,” he posted on X with photographs of him in his office chair.
Congratulating Omar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished him the best and said: “The Centre will work closely with him and his team for J&K’s progress.”
Abdullah, who had also served as chief minister between 2009 and 2014 when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state, held an introductory meeting with the administrative secretaries to set the tone for his new administration.
Addressing the media soon after the swearing-in ceremony at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar, Omar said: “I had said that we will not allow Jammu to feel they do not have a voice or representatives in this government. I have chosen a deputy chief minister from Jammu so the people of Jammu feel that this government is as much theirs as it is of the rest.”
As NC Chairman Omar sought to give equal representation to Hindus and to the Jammu region in his council of ministers, Surinder Choudhary took oath as the deputy CM. Of the NC’s 42 winning candidates, 35 are from Kashmir and seven from the Jammu region, and only two, Choudhary and Ramban’s Arjun Singh Raju, are Hindus. Of the BJP’s 29 winning candidates, all are from the Jammu region, of which 28 are Hindus and one a Sikh.
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Partyhopper now deputy CM
Choudhary has been a party hopper in his three decades in politics. On Wednesday, the 56-year-old became an unintended beneficiary of a Assembly verdict, where the NC swept the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the Hindu-dominated Jammu region.
On July 11, 2023, Choudhary had posted on X: “Goodbye BJP”. He sought to blame his exit from the BJP on its Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state unit chief Ravinder Raina, accusing him of indulging in dynastic politics and corruption. Few heeded Choudhary’s allegations since the two men vied for the same electoral turf.
In the 2014 Assembly polls, Choudhary, then a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, had lost to Raina from the Jammu region’s Nowshera seat in the Rajouri district by 9,503 votes. Fifteen months after he quit the BJP and joined the NC, Choudhary emerged the giant killer of the J&K Assembly polls, defeating Raina from Nowshera by 7,819 votes.
Choudhary’s return to the NC last year revived his chequered political career, which had started with him joining the NC when he was 27 and has included stints in the Bahujan Samaj Party, PDP and the BJP.
He was a member of the erstwhile Legislative Council as a PDP member. Choudhary, who in his election affidavit has declared his educational qualification as 12th pass from Nowshera government school, and Rs 2 crore in assets, quit the PDP in 2021. He joined the BJP in March 2022. His posts on X announcing his exit from the party in July 2023 turned out to be prophetic. “The game is afoot. Next government will be of the NC,” he had posted.
After taking oath, Choudhary, who is from Pir Panjal in Jammu , said the Omar Abdullah government will resume the ‘darbar move’ – a bi-annual practice under which the government used to function six months each from Jammu and Srinagar. “It is a proud moment for the people of Pir Panjal in general and my constituency Nowshera (in the Rajouri district) in particular... It is a proud moment for the entire Jammu region,” he said.
The six-member council has Choudhary, Satish Sharma (who won as an Independent and later announced support to NC) and Javed Rana, from the Jammu region, while Omar, Sakina Masood Itoo, and Javed Dar represent the Kashmir Valley.
Among those who attended the ceremony were Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Left leaders Prakash Karat and D Raja, DMK's Kanimozhi and NCP's Supriya Sule. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was there as well.
Congress state unit chief Tariq Hameed Karra said the Congress will not join the council of ministers for the moment because it is “unhappy” that statehood has not been restored.
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