Omar Abdullah
Credit: PTI Photo
Srinagar: The newly elected members of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly were administered oath on Monday by pro-tem speaker Mubarak Gul, with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah taking the pledge in the Kashmiri language.
The 54-year-old Leader of the House was the first MLA to be administered the oath.
Omar Abdullah, son of Farooq Abdullah and his British wife Mollie Abdullah, had often faced criticism for not being able to speak his native language.
While the third generation politician from the Abdullah family is fluent in English, his fluency in vernaculars like Hindi, Urdu and 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, Omar Abdullah took lessons to improve his speaking skills in these three languages. And on Monday, he took the oath as MLA in Kashmiri.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary took oath in English.
The oath-taking ceremony of the MLAs marks an end to the six-year-long legislative 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.
The National Conference (NC) emerged as the single largest party in the assembly polls held in September and October.
The oldest political party of Jammu and Kashmir has formed the government with external support from the Congress, which has six MLAs.
Five independent MLAs, one MLA from the AAP, and the CPI(M) have also extended their support.
The BJP with 29 seats is the second-largest party -- its best-ever performance in J&K.