Omar Abdullah, the Vice President of the National Conference (NC), is scheduled to be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for the second time at 11:30 am today. With this achievement, he will be inaugurated as the initial Chief Minister of this specific administrative region. The venue for the event is the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Center located in Srinagar.
Four ministers are anticipated to be sworn in along with him. As per the details provided, the Congress and independent MLAs backing the government won’t be sworn in as ministers. According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, the maximum number of ministers, including the Chief Minister, cannot go beyond 10% of the total assembly seats. Following his inauguration, Omar Abdullah will convene with the Administrative Secretary at 3:00 pm.
Omar Abdullah stated that he visited Hazratbal as a grandchild to lay flowers on the tombs of his grandparents. I quietly prayed to Allah for the aspirations of the inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir to come true. The citizens of the state have faced an extremely challenging period. The people have high expectations, so our challenges are also high.
Over 50 VIPs are expected to be present at the swearing-in ceremony, including several prominent leaders from India. NC has extended invitations to approximately 50 VIPs, which includes Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Arvind Kejriwal. Simultaneously, Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, arrived in Srinagar on the 15th of October.
4 out of the 7 independent MLAs who were victorious in the election declared their backing for NC on October 10th. The four independent candidates are Pyarelal Sharma from Inderwal, Satish Sharma from Chhamb, Mohammad Akram from Surankot, and Dr Rameshwar Singh from Bani seat. Following that, Omar Abdullah stated – our total has now gone up to 46. The next day, AAP also backed NC on October 11. Mehraj Malik was elected as the sole MLA representing the party in the Doda seat.
Following that, MLA Muzaffar Iqbal Khan from Thannamandi extended support to the National Conference. This means that NC can form the government without relying on Congress, but Congress will still be included in the government due to the pre-poll alliance.Omar Abdullah ran for election in two constituencies: Ganderbal and Budgam. He was successful in both.
In fact, Omar Abdullah was defeated in the election for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat. During that period when engineer Rashid, an independent candidate, was imprisoned in Tihar jail, he won against his opponent by a margin of around 200,000 votes. Therefore, Umar ran for the election from two assembly seats. The National Conference has held both seats firmly.
The command to remove the President’s rule from the state was issued late at night on 13 October, before the new government was established. The Home Ministry confirmed that President Draupadi Murmu had instructed to lift the President’s rule prior to the new Chief Minister’s swearing-in.
Following this, the state was placed under Governor’s rule for a period of 6 months, after which President’s rule was implemented. During 2019, Lok Sabha elections took place, leading to a significant victory for BJP as they returned to power at the Centre. Following this, the BJP government removed Article 370 on August 5, 2019, which granted special status to the state.
Additionally, the state was split into two union territories, namely Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Following that, the state was under President’s rule for approximately 6 years before recent assembly elections were conducted. In the 2024 state elections, the National Conference (NC) secured 42 seats, with their partner Congress winning 6 seats and CPI (M) earning one seat.
Following the end of President’s rule and the establishment of a new government, elections will take place for four Rajya Sabha seats in the state. Talks on this topic have already become more intense. Based on the election results, two Rajya Sabha seats may be allocated to the NC-Congress alliance, while one seat may be awarded to the BJP. NC President Farooq Abdullah may be nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Because of his poor health, he had declined to participate in the assembly elections.