Omar Abdullah was an MLA from Ganderbal from 2009 to 2014 during his first stint as chief minister.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Monday vacated the Budgam assembly seat, one of the two seats from where he was elected. He has retained the Ganderbal constituency, PTI reported. Jammu and Kashmir pro-tem speaker Mubarak Gul announced in the House.
Omar Abdullah, 54, won the Budgam seat in the recently concluded Jammu and Kashmir elections. He defeated People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi by 18,485 votes.
The National Conference vice president also won from Ganderbal, an Abdullah family stronghold. He defeated PDP’s Bashir Ahmed Mir by 10,574 votes.
Omar Abdullah was an MLA from Ganderbal from 2009 to 2014 during his first stint as chief minister. This constituency has been represented by his father Farooq Abdullah and grandfather Sheikh Abdullah, who founded the NC.
With Abdullah vacating Budgam, the strength of the National Conference in the 95-member house has been reduced to 41 but the party still enjoys a comfortable majority with the support of six Congress MLA, five Independents and one MLA each of the AAP and the CPI(M).
Omar Abdullah takes oath as MLA in Kashmiri
Earlier in the day, pro-tem speaker Mubarak Gul administered oath to the newly elected members of the J&K assembly. CM Abdullah took oath in Kashmiri language, PTI reported.
Omar 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.
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.
