Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the first Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister as a Union Territory on 16 October 2024. LG Manoj Sinha administered him and his selected members the oath of office at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), Srinagar.
J&K LG Manoj Sinha administers oath of office and secrecy to Omar Abdullah, five ministers.
| Jammu and Kashmir Council of Ministers | ||
| 1 | Shri Surinder Kumar Choudhary | Deputy Chief Minister (Public Works (R&B), Industries & Commerce, Mining, Labour & Employment and Skill Development Departments) |
| 2 | Smt. Sakeena Masood (Itoo) | Minister for Health & Medical Education, School Education, Higher Education and Social Welfare Departments. |
| 3 | Shri Javed Ahmed Rana | Minister for Jal Shakti, Forest, Ecology & Environment and Tribal Affairs Departments. |
| 4 | Shri Javid Ahmad Dar | Minister for Agriculture Production, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Cooperative and Election Departments. |
| 5 | Shri Satish Sharma | Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Transport, Science & Technology, Information Technology, Youth Services & Sports and ARI & Trainings Departments. |
Any departments/subjects not allocated to any of the ministers, shall remain with the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister.
Here are the interesting things you need to know about the First CM & Ministry Of Jammu and Kashmir UT which might prove detrimental or decisive to Jammu & Kashmir’s future:
- Five ministers – two from Kashmir and three from Jammu took oath of office on the occasion.
- Surinder Chaudhary, an NC leader from Jammu Division, was sworn is as deputy chief minister by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. Choudhary — a former member of the PDP and the BJP who emerged a giant killer when he defeated BJP’s J-K president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera by 7,819 votes
- National Conference MLA from Mendhar Javed Ahmed Rana, Javid Ahmad Dar from Rafiabad, Sakina Itoo from DH Pora and Surinder Kumar Chowdhary were also administered oath by LG Sinha as ministers in Cabinet from NC.Independent MLA from Chhamb assmebly seat Satish Sharma was given a place in Omar Abdullah-led cabinet.
- The Congress, which was ally partner of National Conference, has decided not to be part of the new Jammu and Kashmir government.
- Sakina Itoo, 52, has been the NC’s woman face for a long time, and served in the Omar Abdullah government of 2008-14 as the Social Welfare Minister. She joined politics, abandoning her MBBS course in the third year, after her father Wali Mohammad Itoo was assassinated by militants in 1994.The senior Itoo was an NC leader and represented the constituency Sakina won from this time, D H Pora (called Noorabad before delimitation in 2022) in South Kashmir’s Kulgam, for four consecutive terms from 1972 to 1987.
- Javed Ahmed Rana is credited with orchestrating the National Conference’s remarkable resurgence in the Pir Panjal region, which includes Rajouri and Poonch districts. The party secured six out of the eight Assembly seats in the area this time, a significant improvement from 2014 when it managed to win only one—Mendhar. Incidentally, Rana was the lone winner back then, defeating PDP’s Mohammad Mahroof Khan. At 61, Rana, a law graduate from Jammu University, is now a three-time MLA from Mendhar, with a previous term as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC). In the latest election, he triumphed over BJP’s Murtaza Ahmad Khan by a margin of 17,270 votes.
- Javed Ahmad Dar won from the Rafiabad Assembly constituency in North Kashmir in the recent elections. Dar, 50, has an MBA from Pune University and joined politics in 1999 as a PDP leader. With the family name behind him, Dar’s rise was swift, and he soon became the PDP’s state secretary. In 2008, he left and joined the NC, and after he won from the Rafiabad seat, was inducted in the Omar Abdullah-led Cabinet at the time. In 2014 though, Dar lost to the PDP’s young face Yawar Mir. In recent years, he was the NC’s zonal president for north Kashmir.
- Satish Sharma’s comes from a political family—his father, the late Congress leader Madan Lal Sharma, was a two-term Member of Parliament for the Jammu-Poonch constituency (2004-2014) and served as an MLA three times (from Chhamb, 1983-1987, and Akhnoor, 2002-2004). Adding to the family’s political legacy, his uncle Sham Lal Sharma is currently a BJP MLA representing Jammu North.
- Abdullah has become first chief minister of the Union Territory after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, He is also the first CM of Jammu and Kashmir after the erstwhile state was bifurcated into Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories and in his first term he was Chief Minister of J&K State.
- The National Conference won 42 out of the 90 seats in the recent elections while alliance partner Congress bagged six. Together, the two pre-poll allies hold a majority in the 95-member assembly — five members are to be nominated by the LG.
- Omar Abdullah’s grandfather, Sheikh Mohammad Abullah, was the first Prime Minister of JK after its accession to India and later served as Chief Minister. Omar’s father Farooq Abdullah has been the CM of the erstwhile state thrice.
- Omar, a former Member of Parliament was the Chief Minister of the erstwhile state between 2009-2015. He had also served as Union Minister of State for External Affairs in former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s NDA government from 2001 to 2002.
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The National Conference-Congress alliance won the maiden assembly elections held after the abrogation of Article 370. The NC won 42 seats while the Congress won 6 seats. The majority got further strengthened with the backing of five Independent MLAs and one MLA from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The Bharatiya Janata Party won 29 seats, up from 25 it won in 2014 assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under President’s rule since June 2018, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support from Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
