PM Modi Congratulates Omar Abdullah On Taking Oath As J&K CM, Assures Centre's Support For UT's Progress

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (16 October) congratulated National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah for taking oath as the new Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

PM Modi assured Abdullah that the Centre will support the new J&K CM for progress of the Union Territory.

"Congratulations to Shri Omar Abdullah Ji on taking oath as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Wishing him the very best in his efforts to serve the people. The Centre will work closely with him and his team for J&K's progress," PM Modi said in a post on X.

Earlier in the day, J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha administered oath of office to Abdullah at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar.

LG Sinha also administered oath to five other lawmakers from NC - Sakina Masood (Itoo), Javed Dar, Javed Rana, Surinder Choudhary, and Satish Sharma.

The Congress - which had allied with Abdullah's party but put up a flop show in the elections - has opted to sit out of the government, supporting it from outside.

Surinder Choudhary, the NC MLA from Jammu's Nowshera, will be the deputy CM in the new J&K government.

This is the first elected government since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated from Jammu and Kashmir and the state was bifurcated into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

In the assembly elections held recently, the National Conference won 42 out of the 90 seats.

Meanwhile, the BJP won 29 seats in the J&K Assembly polls.

National Conference government has the support of four Independents and one AAP legislator, besides that of the Congress, which won just six seats - down from 12 in the 2014 election.

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