STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: Chief Minister-designate Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday called up former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to invite him for her swearing-in ceremony scheduled on April 4.
“Very gracious of Mehbooba Mufti Sahiba to phone & invite me to her oath taking ceremony. I look forward to being there on the 4th,” National Conference Working President Omar Abdullah tweeted. Mehbooba, Deputy Chief Minister designate Dr Nirmal Singh and other council of ministers will take oath at the swearing-in-ceremony at Raj Bhavan at 11 AM on Monday, official sources here said.
Mehbooba will reach Jammu tomorrow, a day ahead of oath taking and will hold discussions with the party leaders and leader of the BJP legislative party Dr Nirmal Singh on composition of the ministry and distribution of portfolios.
Mehbooba will also hold a meeting with the party leadership to restructure PDP in wake of the new government formation.
In this direction, a joint communiqué was sent to Governor N N Vohra by PDP and BJP.
PDP and BJP had staked claim for government formation on March 26, two days after Mehbooba was elected as PDP’s legislature party leader.
After the death of her father, who headed PDP-BJP coalition government for 10 months from March 1, last year until his death on January 7, this year, Mehbooba had been reluctant to take over as CM of the PDP-BJP coalition government.
She had been seeking assurances from the central government on implementation of Agenda of Alliance, Common Minimum Programme (CMP) framed by the two parties last year.
Mehbooba also sought some J-K-specific confidence building measures.
However, her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 22 ended.