The Congress appointed Ghulam Ahmad Mir as its Legislature Party leader in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, a day before the formation of a coalition government with the National Conference in the union territory.
In a letter to J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal announced that party president Mallikarjun Kharge designated Mir as the leader of the legislature party. Mir won the Dooru assembly seat by a significant margin.
The Jammu and Kashmir Congress Legislature Party (CLP) convened in Srinagar on October 11 and decided to defer the nomination of the CLP leader to the Congress central leadership in New Delhi.
In the recent elections, the Congress secured six seats, while the National Conference, its alliance partner, won 42 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 29 seats, the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (JKPDP) won three, and the People’s Conference, CPI(M), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) each won one seat. Seven seats were won by Independents.
Chief Minister-designate Omar Abdullah is set to take the oath of office on Wednesday. The ceremony is expected to be attended by prominent leaders from the INDIA bloc, including Kharge, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, senior CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and AAP leader Sanjay Singh.