Omar Abdullah on Wednesday sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with him, five other MLAs took oath as the Cabinet ministers. The new Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet includes Javed Ahmad Dar, Javed Ahmed Rana, Sakina Itoo, Surender Choudhary and Satish Sharma. One of the important names among them is Satish Sharma as he is the only one who represents the Jammu region and was elected from Chhamb as an independent.
Who is Satish Sharma?
Satish Sharma is the son of former MP Madal Lal Sharma. He was a Congress leader but after the infight over ticket distribution, he left the party and contested as an independent. Congress gave the ticket to former CM Tara Chand.
Contesting as an independent, he defeated BJP's Rajeev Sharma with a margin of 6,920 votes. Tara Chand finished third. After his victory, he extended support to the NC to form govt. Accordingly, Omar Abdullah took him to the Cabinet. He is the only Jammu region MLA to have been included in the Cabinet. Among five new Cabinet ministers, two are from the Hindu communities, including Satish Sharma.
The other ministers, who took oath as Cabinet ministers include, Javed Ahmed Rana, Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Sakeena Masood Itoo, and Javed Ahmed Dar.
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections
Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections were held in three phases from September 18 to October 1. The results were declared on October 8. The NC won 42 out of the 90 seats while the Congress won six. Together, the two pre-poll allies hold a majority in the 95-member assembly — five members are to be nominated by the LG. Their strength is further bolstered by the support from five Independent MLAs-elect and a lone AAP MLA-elect. His first term as the CM of Jammu and Kashmir was from 2009 to 2014. At that time J-K was a state. In 2019, Article 370 was abrogated and later the state was divided into two UTs J-K and Ladakh.
(With inputs from agencies)
