Jammu: 38 year old Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at a sparkling swearing-in ceremony here yesterday. In the presence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Governor NN Vohra administered Omar the oath of office and secrecy at the General Zorawar Singh Auditorium on the Jammu University campus.

Omar is the third generation leader of the J& K National Conference (NC). He is the son of former chief minister Farooq Abdullah and grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, another chief minister of the state.

Along with Omar, nine other ministers were also sworn in. The first to take oath after Omar was senior Congress leader and former Speaker Tara Chand. Tara Chand is considered as the Congress choice for the Deputy Chief Minister's post.

Among other VIPs present at the ceremony included Union Minister of State in PMO Prithviraj Chavan, former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Water Resources Minister and state Congress chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, BJP legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta, MPs Sachin Pilot and Dr Karan Singh. Apart from these business tycoons like Subhash Chandra of Zee Group, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Group and Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel were also present on this occasion.

Those sworn-in as the cabinet ministers (in that order) were Tarachand (Cong), Abdul Rahim Rather (NC), Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed (Cong), Ali Mohammed Sagar
(NC), Mian Altaf (NC), Taj Mohi-ud-Din (Cong), Nawang Rigzin Jora (Cong), Surjit Singh Slathia (NC) and Shamlal Sharma (Cong). With the NC-Congress government taking over the state, the six-month Governor rule in the state also came to an end. Omar has formed the new government in alliance with Congress Party.

In the elections no party could gain the required seats to form its own government in the state. NC had emerged as single largest party with 28 seats with People's Democratic Party (PDP) winning 21 assembly seats.