Girish Chandra Murmu takes oath as the lieutenant governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir

Girish Chandra Murmu took oath as the lieutenant governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.

He was sworn in by the Chief justice of the Srinagar High Court Gita Mittal in a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan.

#WATCH Srinagar: Girish Chandra Murmu takes oath as the first Lt. Governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The oath was administered by Chief Justice of J&K High Court, Gita Mittal. pic.twitter.com/SFFmBbfDMt

— ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2019

As per the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, Jammu & Kashmir officially lost its statehood and became a union territory at the stroke of midnight on 31 October, almost three months after the Centre revoked Article 370.

It will have a legislature like Puducherry with an elected legislative assembly and a chief minister.

Murmu is a 1985 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre and was the principal secretary to Narendra Modi during his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat. He is said to be a trusted aide of PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Meanwhile, Radha Krishna Mathur was sworn-in as the first Lt Governor of Union Territory of Ladakh

Both the UTs came into existence after bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two separate UTs — J&K and Ladakh.

India now officially has one state-less and two Union Territories more - J&K and Ladakh, i.e. India now has 28 states and nine union territories.