National Conference leader Surinder Kumar Choudhary on Tuesday took oath as the new Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He will be the deputy to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. In the recently concluded Assembly elections, Choudhary defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's state chief Ravinder Raina in Nowshera by 7,819 votes.
Who is Surinder Kumar Choudhary?
Newly elected Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced that Surinder Choudhary will take the position of Deputy Chief Minister, in an effort to boost representation from the Jammu division. The National Conference won four seats in Jammu, while Congress secured just one, prompting this strategic move. 56-year-old Choudhary hails from Marha, Jammu, and is the son of Dayal Chand. He completed his education up to the eighth grade at Government High School, Ghajansoo.
Choudhary entered the political arena in the 2014 Assembly elections, contesting from Nowshera on a PDP ticket. However, he lost to BJP’s Ravinder Raina, who secured 37,374 votes compared to Choudhary's 27,871. Choudhary and Raina's rivalry dates back to the 2014 Nowshera elections, where tensions escalated into a physical altercation that left Raina hospitalised. Since then, their political animosity has continued to simmer.
Omar Abdullah sworn in as J-K CM
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took oath as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, heading the first elected government in the Union territory since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated and one the Congress is staying away from for now. The five ministers sworn in were Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Sakina Masood (Itoo), Javed Dar, Javed Rana and Satish Sharma -- three from Jammu and two from the Kashmir Valley, a clear effort to assuage some of the apprehensions of people in Jammu.
Abdullah, who takes over as chief minister for a second term, is the third generation of the influential Abdullah family to occupy the office -- after his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah and father Farooq Abdullah. His first term as chief minister was from 2009 to 2014 when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state. The swearing-in ceremony of the NC government comes in the backdrop of the NC-Congress win in Jammu and Kashmir and the Congress loss to the BJP in Haryana.
(With PTI inputs)
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