Omar vacates Budgam, retains Ganderbal
Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Oct 21: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today took the pledge in Kashmiri language as Pro-tem Speaker Mubarak Gul administered oath to the newly elected members of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
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Around a dozen MLAs took oath in Kashmiri and another dozen in Dogri while three MLAs -Sunil Sharma, Shagun Parihar and Ranbir Singh Pathania – took pledge in Sanskrit, few even took in Gojri and Pahari while NC leader and former Deputy Speaker Nazir Gurezi took oath in Shena language.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary who took oath in Hindi as Deputy Chief Minister last week today took oath in English. Several other MLAs took pledge in Hindi and Urdu as well.
Omar, whose mother Mollie Abdullah is British, had often faced criticism for not being able to speak his native language but surprised everyone by taking pledge in Kashmiri.
His Kashmiri was poor at the start of his political career in the late 1990s. However, during his first tenure as Chief Minister from 2009 to 2014, he took lessons to improve his Kashmiri speaking skills.
The Pro-tem Speaker announced in the House today that Omar Abdullah who won both the Budgam and Ganderbal Assembly constituencies in the recently held elections vacated the Budgam seat and retained the Ganderbal constituency. The Ganderbal seat is considered an Abdullah family stronghold.
With this, the strength of the National Conference in the 95-member House has been reduced to 41 but the party still enjoys a comfortable majority with the support of six Congress MLAs, five Independents and one MLA each of the AAP and the CPI(M). The BJP with 29 seats is the second-largest party – its best-ever performance in J&K.
The oath-taking ceremony of the MLAs marks an end to the six-year-longlegislative hiatus.
There are 51 first-time members including BJP MLA from Kishtwar Shagun Parihar, who is the youngest member at 29. The NC veteran and MLA from Chrar-e-Sharief, Abdul Rahim Rather, is the oldest at 80.
Rather and party colleague Ali Mohammad Sagar (MLA Khanyar) have been elected to the Assembly for a record seven terms. While Sagar has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly since 1983, Rather started his long stint as a Legislator in 1977. However, the former Finance Minister lost the 2014 Assembly elections.
Congratulating the newly elected MLAs, Pro-tem Speaker Mubarak Gul expressed hope that they would raise the issues related to the public welfare in a total professional manner. He exhorted upon the legislators to work collectively so that the journey takes a smooth and steady pace for welfare of the people.
He said that Omar Abdullah led Government will take everyone along for steering Jammu and Kashmir towards new heights of peace, progress and prosperity. He also thanked all the concerned departments for making all the arrangements for smooth conduct of the oath ceremony.
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