Srinagar:

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday selected celebration chief Surinder Choudhary from Nowshera in Jammu as his deputy, saying he did so to provide a voice to the individuals of the area and make his authorities inclusive.

“Our endeavour shall be to take everybody alongside,” the Nationwide Convention chief advised reporters after being sworn in. 5 ministers — Sakina Masood (Itoo), Javed Dar, Javed Rana, Surinder Choudhary and Satish Sharma — additionally took the oath of workplace.

There are three vacancies and “they’ll regularly be crammed”, Mr Abdullah mentioned.

He mentioned Mr Choudhary — a former member of the PDP and the BJP who emerged a large killer when he defeated BJP’s J-Ok president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera by 7,819 votes — was chosen as deputy chief minister so individuals of Jammu don’t really feel overlooked from the federal government.

“I had mentioned that we’ll not enable Jammu to really feel that they don’t have a voice or representatives on this authorities. I’ve chosen a deputy chief minister from Jammu in order that the individuals of Jammu really feel that this authorities is as a lot theirs as it’s of the remaining,” he mentioned.

Within the 2014 meeting elections, Mr Raina gained the Nowshera seat by defeating Mr Choudhary, who was then combating on a PDP ticket, by a margin of over 10,000 votes.

Mr Choudhary resigned from the PDP in 2022 to affix the BJP earlier than ending his over-a-year-long affiliation with the celebration to affix the NC in July final yr.

That is the primary elected authorities 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.

Within the meeting elections held just lately, the Nationwide Convention gained 42 out of the 90 seats whereas alliance companion Congress bagged six. Collectively, the 2 pre-poll allies maintain a majority within the 95-member meeting — 5 members are to be nominated by the LG.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)