And as both the Congress and the NC sought to give equal representation to all the regions and ethnic identities of the state in a bid to allay fears of discrimination, Governor N N Vohra administered the oath of office to nine ministers along with Omar.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister for Water Resource Development and Pradesh Congress Committee president Saifudin Soz, Congress MP and erstwhile Sadar-i-Riyasat Dr Karan Singh, Omar’s Father and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, brother-in-law Sachin Pilot, mother Molly, wife Payal and children were also present at the swearing-in.

Significantly, a number of business tycoons of the country — Bharti Airtel’s Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal, Director of the Batra Group of Industries Narendar Batra, Vivek Nair of the Leela Group of Hotels, Naveen Jindal of Jindal group of Industries, Director of the JP Group of Industries Sameer Gour and Zee TV owner Subash Chandra — were also present at the ceremony as special invitees. Narendar Batra said there was a lot of scope for investment in the state. “There is a need to build a knowledge-based economy and we would invest in setting up of a new professional college in the state.”

For the political watchers, the beginning of this new Gandhi-Abdullah friendship looks set to augur well for the state. A close associate of Sheikh Abdullah and NC MLC M Y Taing said, “This is the beginning of a new era for the state. It is the same as had happened during the tenure of Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister, Farooq Abdullah had become Chief Minister after the demise of Shiekh Sahib in 1982. The Indira-Sheikh Accord in 1975, too, had brought Sheikh Sahib to power after nearly 22 years of prisons and political detentions,” he said.

In the first Ministry, four of the NC’s elected legislators —former minister and Vijaypur MLA-elect S S Slathia, former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, Gujjar leader and Kangan MLA-elect Mian Altaf and former Minister and Khanyar MLA-elect Ali Mohammad Sagar — were sworn in.

From the Congress, besides former speaker Tara Chand who won from the Chamb Assembly constituency despite a pro-Amarnath wave giving the BJP a thumping victory in the 11 Assembly constituencies, the others who took oath were Gujjar leader and Uri MLA-elect Taj Mohidin; Leh MLA-elect Rigzin Jora, Akhnoor MLA-elect Sham Lal Sharma, and former state president of Congress and Kokernag MLA-elect Peerzad Mohammad Sayeed.

In a jam-packed General Zorawar Singh auditorium, PDP patron Mehbooba Mufti and former deputy chief minister Mangat Ram Sharma were also present.