J&K Assembly Speaker administers oath to newly elected MLAs

Jammu, Nov 21 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather on Friday administered the oath to two newly elected MLAs, Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi and Devyani Rana.

PDP's Mehdi has been elected from the Budgam Assembly constituency, while Devyani Rana of the BJP has been elected from the Nagrota constituency.

Mehdi took the oath in Urdu and Rana in Dogri.

Rana, on Friday, broke a new glass ceiling by winning the assembly bypoll from the Nagrota constituency, as Jammu and Kashmir will now have four elected women legislators for the first time.

Devyani won the Nagrota assembly by-election, defeating her closest rival, Harsh Dev Singh of the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP), by a margin of over 24,000 votes.

The J&K Assembly had elected three women MLAs in 2008, 2014 and 2024, marking the highest female representation until now.

Before leaving for the oath ceremony, Devyani took blessings from her grandmother and subsequently visited the BJP office, where she received a rousing reception.

Mehdi won the Budgam assembly bypoll, defeating the ruling National Conference (NC) candidate Aga Syed Mehmood by a margin of nearly 4,500 votes.

This is the first time that the NC has lost in its bastion of Budgam, in central Kashmir, since 1957, the year of the first legislative assembly elections.

The elections to the Budgam and Nagrota seats were necessitated due to the vacation of the seat by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the death of BJP MLA Devender Singh Rana, respectively, last year.

MP Rajya Sabha Sat Paul Sharma, Leader of Opposition Sunil Kumar Sharma, MLAs Sham Lal Sharma, Vikram Randhawa, Waheed-Ur-Rehman Para and family members of the newly elected members were also present on the occasion. PTI AB AMJ AMJ