Mubarak Gul takes oath as Pro-tem Speaker of J&K Assembly

SRINAGAR — Senior National Conference leader and former J&K Speaker Mubarak Gul was on Saturday sworn in as the Pro-tem Speaker of the Assembly by Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha at the Raj Bhawan here.

An official statement said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other senior NC leaders were present at the ceremony.

Gul will remain Pro-tem Speaker till elections are held for the new Speaker.

A Raj Bhavan communication had said yesterday that the Lt Governor, exercising powers conferred upon him under Section 24 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, has appointed Gul to the post to administer oath/affirmation to the newly elected legislators.

NC sources said that Senior NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather is likely to be the next Speaker. Finance Minister in the previous NC governments headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah, Rather won the Assembly election from the Chrar-e-Sharief constituency by defeating senior PDP leader and former minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura.

Sources said the NC has offered the post of Deputy Speaker to the BJP, which is the second-largest party in the Assembly with 29 seats, behind the NC’s 42.

The Congress has six members, the PDP three, while the Aam Aadmi Party, the Peoples Conference, and the CPI-M have one each. There are also 7 Independent members.

Although the NC and Congress fought the assembly elections in alliance, the Congress has said it would not join the cabinet as long as J&K’s statehood was not restored. Pre-poll ally CPI-M has also decided to stay out of the government.

Omar Abdullah has so far chosen five ministers while he can still include four more. However, there are many aspirants for the ministerial berths in his cabinet, including senior NC leaders like Ali Mohammad Sagar, Saifullah Mir, and Gul are believed to be front runners for the ministerial berths.

The Chief Minister has, however, focused his priority on addressing the sense of alienation in the Jammu division where the BJP swept the polls, and the Congress managed to just win one seat in the Jammu division.

The appointment of Surinder Choudhary, who defeated BJP’s J&K chief Ravinder Raina in Nowshera, as the Deputy Chief Minister in the government is a step in this direction.