3 min readSrinagarAug 26, 2026 06:33 PM IST
First published on: Aug 26, 2026 at 06:33 PM IST
The rift between the National Conference and its Srinagar Member of Parliament Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi now appears to be heading towards an inevitable break.
A day after National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah publicly challenged Ruhullah to seek a fresh mandate without the National Conference, Ruhullah has hinted at his possible exit.
“It can’t happen that Dr Sahib asks for something and I don’t give it to him, that I send him empty-handed,” Ruhullah said. “I will respond to it (senior Abdullah’s call for resignation) in detail over the next few days.”
This comes as the rift between Ruhullah and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has steadily grown over the last few months, especially given the Srinagar MP’s increasingly independent political positions and growing criticism of the NC government.
The party’s star campaigner in the 2024 J&K Assembly elections and a leader many candidates appeared to prefer over Omar, Ruhullah has accused the party of backtracking on promises made to the people during the elections and abandoning the fight for Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional rights taken away on August 5, 2019.
Silent over the growing rift between Ruhullah and his son for the last year, Farooq took a public swipe at the Srinagar MP, whom he brought into politics, this week.
Speaking to a local news channel, the NC patriarch Farooq Abdullah said: “Could Ruhullah sahib have ever won without the National Conference? I tell him, resign, resign from Parliament and go back to the people. We will see who will vote for him. Everything will come out before you.”
While Ruhullah maintains that he is fighting a principled fight, Farooq has accused him of seeking personal gains. “If Ruhullah sahib thinks that he can bring back (Article) 370, let him. He is a parliament member. Let him speak. Who stopped him? We didn’t. But the way he wants to make himself a tall leader, he is on the wrong path,” the senior Abdullah said in the interview. “You should see what happened to those 14 (legislators), who toppled my government in 1984. They are nowhere to be seen today.”
It was senior Abdullah who brought Ruhullah into politics in 2000 after his father, Congress leader Aga Syed Mehdi, was killed in a landmine blast on the Srinagar-Gulmarg road, fielding him as the NC’s Budgam candidate when he was barely 25 years old.
The cracks in the relationship between Ruhullah and Omar began to be seen in December 2024, when Ruhullah joined a student protest seeking rationalisation of reservation. But with Farooq Abdullah now calling for his resignation, the chances of a rapprochement have further diminished.
It’s this that was hinted at in his response to Farooq Abdullah. “He (Farooq Abdullah) has asked for something in this age, and I would not like that he has asked for something and I don’t give him,” he said.