Source: The Sangai Express / PTI
Jammu, January 04 2008:
Omar Abdullah will take oath as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow at the head of a National Conference-Congress coalition Government amid indications that it will be a six-member Ministry and without a Deputy Chief Minister from the Congress.
Omar (38) will become the State's youngest Chief Minister and the eleventh after he was unanimously elected as the leader of the NC Legislature party at its meeting.
Omar's name was proposed by his father and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and seconded unanimously by the remaining 25 legislators.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will attend Omar's swearing-in ceremony to be held at General Zorawar Singh stadium in Jammu university.
Abdullah's proposed six-member Ministry is expected to have three members each from the two coalition partners who have joined hands to stitch an alliance after a gap of two decades.
"I am confident to deliver in the State and come up to the expectation of the people of the State", said Omar who got a rapturous welcome on reaching the border State's winter Capital today.
On the eve of the new Government assuming office, PDP pulled out of the ruling Congress-led UPA coalition with the party president Mehmooba Mufti writing a letter to UPA chairpeson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Besides Abdullah, his party colleagues�AR Rather and Surjeet Sala-thia are also expected to take oath.
Tara Chand (Jammu region), Taj Mohideen (Kashmir valley) and Nawang Rigzin Jora (Ladakh) are Congress' front-runners for a berth in the Ministry.
Congress sources said a Deputy Chief Minister who will be from the party is unlikely to be inducted tomorrow.
The induction is likely to be done after Lok Sabha elections.
Omar's cavalcade took 2 hours to cover the distance of 10 kms from airport to NC headquarters prompting him to say, "I did not expect such a welcome.
People are wise and do not get swayed by the divisive politics" .
He and his wife Payal shook hands with hundreds of people enroute as NC supporters showered flowers on them.
Security has been beefed up in Jammu including in and around the residence of the Abdullah valley in Bhatandi in Jammu city after security forces sanitised areas near the forest belt.
Describing the recent Assembly elections in the State as a major set back to separatists, Omar outlining his agenda asked them to be flexible and promised to facilitate a dialogue between them and the Centre to resolve the Kashmir issue.
"Hurriyat has got a major setback.
The elections were a shock to them," Omar told reporters soon after being accorded a grand reception by his supporters at the National Conference's Jammu headquarters.
Terming the impressive voter turnout as the victory of democracy and a blow to separatists who had given a call for poll boycott in J&K, the NC president advised them not to be rigid but flexible to hold talks with the Centre and promised to play the role of a facilitator in the negotiations.
"Separatists should read the peoples' mind, shed their rigidity and get flexible to hold talks.
When we form Government we will facilitate dialogue between the Government of India and the separatists to resolve the issue," he said.
Asserting that there was no change in the way the NC looked upon the Kashmir issue despite the fact the the party was all set to take over the reins of power in the State, he said, "It would be wrong to assume that we will not talk about Kashmir issue and leave it".