Omar chooses 'giant killer' former BJP leader as his deputy

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday chose party leader Surender Choudhary from Nowshera in Jammu as his deputy, saying he did so to give a voice to people of the region and make his government inclusive.

"Our endeavour will be to take everyone along," the National Conference leader told reporters after being sworn in.

Five ministers -- Sakina Masood (Itoo), Javed Dar, Javed Rana, Surinder Choudhary and Satish Sharma -- also took the oath of office.

There are three vacancies and 'they will gradually be filled', Abdullah said.

He said Choudhary -- a former member of the People's Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party who emerged a giant killer when he defeated BJP's J-K president Ravinder Raina from Nowshera by 7,819 votes -- was chosen as deputy chief minister so people of Jammu do not feel left out from the government.

"I had said that we will not allow Jammu to feel that they do not have a voice or representatives in this government. I have chosen a deputy chief minister from Jammu so that the people of Jammu feel that this government is as much theirs as it is of the rest," he said.

In the 2014 assembly elections, Raina won the Nowshera seat by defeating Choudhary, who was then fighting on a PDP ticket, by a margin of over 10,000 votes.

Choudhary resigned from the PDP in 2022 to join the BJP before ending his over a year-long association with the party to join the NC in July last year.