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Mehbooba Mufti likely to take oath as J & K CM today

by IBNS 08 Jan 2016, 08:23 am

Srinagar, Jan 8 (IBNS) Mehbooba Mufti is expected to take oath on Friday afternoon as the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir succeeding her father Mufti Mohammad Sayeed who died in Delhi yesterday after a brief illness.

Mehbooba,56, will also be the country's first Muslim woman chief minister. 

Her party, the PDP, which is in power in the state in alliance with the BJP, has already conveyed to the Governor that Mehbooba Mufti, the party's president, is its choice for chief minister.

In state elections held in December 2014, the PDP had won 28 of Jammu and Kashmir's 87 seats, dominating the Kashmir Valley, but fell short of a majority.  Mufti Sayeed crafted an unlikely alliance with ideological opposite BJP, helping it share power for the first time in the Muslim majority state.

The BJP placed number 2 in the state with 25 seats, all won in the Jammu region. The National Conference has 15 seats and the Congress 12.