A Raj Bhavan communication said that the Lt Governor, exercising powers conferred upon him under Section 24 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 appointed Mubarak Gul, a former J&K Assembly Speaker, as the pro-tem Speaker, who will administer oath/affirmation to the newly elected legislators of J&K Assembly after which the house will elect a regular speaker.

NC sources said that senior NC leader, Abdul Rahim Rather is likely to be the next Speaker of the Assembly. Finance Minister in previous NC governments headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah, he won the Assembly election from Chrar-e-Sharief constituency by defeating senior PDP leader and former minister, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura.

Sources said the NC has offered the post of the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly to the BJP, which is the second-largest party in the house.

The National Conference won 42 seats in the 90-member house, and is followed by the BJP with 29. The Congress won six, the Peoples Democratic Party three, and the Aam Aadmi Party, the Peoples Conference, and the CPI-M one each, while 7 seats were won by independent candidates.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and four other ministers were sworn in on Wednesday.

Although the NC and Congress fought the assembly elections in alliance, the Congress' J&K President, Tariq Hameed Karra has said that his party would not join the cabinet as long as J&K’s statehood was not restored. Another ally, M.Y.Tarigami of the CPI-M has also decided to stay out of the cabinet, sources said. Tarigami won the Assembly election from the Kulgam constituency.

The Chief Minister has, however, focused his priority on addressing the sense of alienation in the Jammu division where the BJP won 29 seats while the Congress managed to just win one seat. The inclusion of Surinder Choudhary, who defeated the BJP's J&K chief Rabinder Raina from Nowshera, as the Deputy Chief Minister is a step towards accommodating the interests of the people in the Jammu division.

Courtesy Media Group: IANS