Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday summoned the first session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in Srinagar on November 4.

This will be the first session of the House with the erstwhile state of J&K downgraded as a Union Territory (UT). There will also be no Legislative Council as the Upper House was abolished after Article 370 was abrogated in August 2019.

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The LG, under Section 18(1) of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, summoned the session of the Assembly on 4 November at 11.30 am in Srinagar.

In a separate order under the provisions of the Section 21(1) of the J&K Reorganization Act, the LG asked the newly elected MLAs to assemble in the Legislative Assembly on 4 November at 11.30 am to hear his address.

Before that the election of the Speaker of the Assembly will be held at 10.30 am, the LG ordered.

Meanwhile, the senior-most member of the House and a ruling National Conference (NC) MLA, Abdul Rahim Rather, is expected to be elected the Speaker. The NC enjoys support of 55 of the 90 members of the Assembly.

It is likely that sticking to the previous practice, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah might offer the post of Deputy Speaker to the opposition BJP that has a strength of 29 members in the House.

The LG had earlier appointed NC MLA Mubarak Gul the pro-tem Speaker to administer the oath to the newly elected MLAs on 21 October.