|
Ministers
1. Abdul Rahim Rather
2. Ali Mohammad Sagar
3. Mian Altaf Ahmad
4. Surjeet Singh Salathia
(all from NC)
5. Tara Chand
6. Peerzada Mohd Sayeed
7. Taj Mohi-ud-Din
8. Nawang Rigzin Jora
9. Sham Lal Sharma
(all from Congress) |
Jammu, January 5
Omar Abdullah, 38, was sworn in as the state’s youngest Chief Minister at a
glittering swearing-in ceremony here today. Governor NN Vohra administered him the oath of office and secrecy at the
General Zorawar Singh Auditorium on the Jammu University campus in the presence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Omar is also the third to hold the top post from his family after his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah and father Dr Farooq Abdullah. As Omar, attired in a black sherwani, took oath, he was watched by his close family members, including his father and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, mother Mollie Abdullah, wife Payal Abdullah, sons Zahir and Zamir, sisters and other relatives.
Besides Omar, nine other ministers were also sworn in. The first to take oath after Omar was senior Congress leader and former Speaker Tara Chand. According to Congress sources, the MLA from Chhamb in Jammu region, Tara Chand, is the Congress choice for the Deputy Chief Minister’s post.
Among other dignitaries present at the ceremony included Union Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Water Resources Minister and state Congress chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, BJP legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta, MPs Sachin Pilot and Dr Karan Singh, business tycoons - Subhash Chandra of Zee Group, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Group and Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel.
The others, who were sworn in, include Abdul Rahim Rather, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mian Altaf Ahmad, and Surjeet Singh Salathia (all from NC), and Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Nawang Rigzin Jora, and Sham Lal Sharma (all from Congress). While the Congress has tried to achieve a balance by getting two ministers each from Jammu and Kashmir regions and one from Ladakh
region, the NC has four ministers from Kashmir, including Omar, and one from Jammu.
Meanwhile, with the NC-Congress government taking over the reigns of the state, the six-month Governor rule in the state also came to an end. The state was put under the Governor’s rule after the PDP pulled out of the Congress-led coalition government on July 7 in view of the Amarnath land row.
