Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi quits National Conference and resigns from Lok Sabha, accusing Omar Abdullah of betraying the 2024 mandate
Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi announced his resignation from the National Conference and the Lok Sabha at a rally in Budgam on Tuesday, accusing Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of abandoning the party's 2024 election promises.
Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi announced on Tuesday that he was quitting the National Conference and resigning from the Lok Sabha, ending an association with the party that stretched back more than two decades and delivering the sharpest public blow yet to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's leadership.
Mehdi made the announcement before a large gathering at Behisht-e-Zehra Park in Budgam, in central Kashmir, on the 26th death anniversary of his father, Aga Syed Mehdi, who was killed in an improvised explosive device blast in 2000. Waving what he described as his resignation papers, the 50-year-old leader told the crowd that God had freed him from the National Conference, a line that drew loud applause from supporters.
In a symbolic gesture, Mehdi handed a copy of his resignation from the party to Mohammad Ashraf Mattoo, whose son Tufail Mattoo was killed after being hit by a tear-gas shell during the unrest of 2010, and asked him to deliver it to National Conference president Farooq Abdullah. He separately sent a resignation letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, invoking Article 101(3)(b) of the Constitution and Rule 240 of the Lok Sabha's rules of procedure, and stating that his resignation from the Srinagar seat was voluntary, genuine and with immediate effect. A Lok Sabha resignation takes effect once it is accepted by the Speaker.
At the heart of Mehdi's break with the party is his charge that its leadership betrayed the mandate voters gave it in the 2024 Assembly elections. He accused the National Conference government of abandoning its manifesto promises soon after returning to power, listing in particular the restoration of Article 370, the restoration of statehood, the creation of one lakh jobs, a balanced reservation policy, 200 units of free electricity and 12 free LPG cylinders a year.
Mehdi described Omar Abdullah bluntly as incompetent and accused the party's top leadership of surrendering to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which holds power at the Centre. He also revisited his own path into Parliament, saying he had initially been asked to contest from Baramulla because of its Shia voters, before the party fielded him from Srinagar instead, a seat he won in 2024 by a margin of more than 1.8 lakh votes over his nearest rival.
The National Conference responded sharply, describing Mehdi's allegations as a manifestation of his mental and moral bankruptcy and an example of self-obsession. The party also claimed that its leadership had itself told Mehdi to resign, a version of events that sits uneasily with the dramatic public staging of his announcement and is likely to fuel competing accounts of the split in the days ahead.
Mehdi's departure does not come out of nowhere. His resignation follows a period of open dissent within the party, including a resolution signed by at least 16 National Conference MLAs last week that gave the leadership 15 days to address complaints about unilateral decisions and what the signatories called coterie culture. Reports have put the number of MLAs backing the demands at around 25, with some pressing for the replacement of ministers after a recent cabinet reshuffle. The National Conference holds 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly and governs with the support of eight others.
Mehdi was careful to say that leaving the National Conference did not mean joining another party. Instead, he said he wanted to bring together honest and dedicated young people from Jammu and Kashmir on a common platform, and he has hinted at forming a new political outfit, a prospect that will be watched closely in a region where his standing as an influential Shia leader gives him a distinct base.
What happens next will turn on several separate decisions. The Speaker must accept Mehdi's parliamentary resignation before the Srinagar seat formally falls vacant and a by-election can be considered. Within the National Conference, the leadership must decide whether to treat the split as the exit of a single rebel or as a warning about wider discontent among its legislators. And Mehdi himself must show whether the crowd that cheered his announcement in Budgam can be turned into an organisation.
For now, the resignation marks a significant moment in Jammu and Kashmir politics: a sitting MP from the ruling party publicly walking away, on a stage heavy with personal and political symbolism, and accusing his own party's government of breaking faith with the voters who put it in office.
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