Farooq Abdullah

Farooq Abdullah
Abdullah in 2011
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office November 2024
Constituency	Jammu and Kashmir
In office 30 November 2002 – 29 November 2008
Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha
In office 16 April 2017 – 4 June 2024
Preceded by	Tariq Hameed Karra
Succeeded by	Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi
Constituency	Srinagar
In office 13 May 2009 – 12 May 2014
Preceded by	Omar Abdullah
Succeeded by	Tariq Hameed Karra
Constituency	Srinagar
In office 6 January 1980 – 5 January 1983
Preceded by	Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah
Succeeded by	Abdul Rashid Kabuli
Constituency	Srinagar
4th Chief Minister of the state of Jammu & Kashmir
In office 9 October 1996 – 18 October 2002
Governor	K. V. Krishna Rao Girish Chandra Saxena
Preceded by	President's Rule
Succeeded by	Mufti Mohammad Sayeed
In office 7 November 1986 – 18 January 1990
Governor	Jagmohan Malhotra K. V. Krishna Rao
Preceded by	Governor's Rule
Succeeded by	Governor's Rule
In office 8 September 1982 – 2 July 1984
Governor	Braj Kumar Nehru Jagmohan Malhotra
Preceded by	Sheikh Abdullah
Succeeded by	Ghulam Mohammad Shah
Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy
In office 28 May 2009 – 26 May 2014
Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh
Preceded by	Vilas Muttemwar
Succeeded by	Piyush Goyal
President of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference
Incumbent
Assumed office 2009
Chairman	Omar Abdullah
Preceded by	Omar Abdullah
In office 1981-2002
Preceded by	Sheikh Abdullah
Succeeded by	Omar Abdullah
Personal details
Born	(1937-10-21) 21 October 1937 Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, British India
Political party	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference
Spouse	Mollie Abdullah
Relations	Sheikh Mustafa Kamal (brother)
Children	Omar Safia Hinna Sara
Residence(s)	Gupkar Road Srinagar, Kashmir
Alma mater	Tyndale Biscoe School
Occupation	Politician

Farooq Abdullah (born 21 October 1937) is an Indian politician and the current president of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. He has served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on several occasions since 1982, and as the union minister for New and Renewable Energy between 2009 and 2014. He is the son of the 1st elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah. His son is the current chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah.

Farooq Abdullah stands between prime minister Manmohan Singh and president of India Pranab Mukherjee with vice-president of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari on far left at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi, India in 2013.

Early life and education

Farooq Abdullah was born to the veteran statesman and National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah and Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah. He studied at Tyndale Biscoe School, and subsequently received his MBBS degree from SMS Medical College, Jaipur. He subsequently travelled to the UK to practice medicine.

Family

He is married to Molly, a nurse of British origin. They have a son, Omar, and three daughters, Safia, Hinna, and Sara. Their son Omar Abdullah is also involved in state and national politics, who was a member of the Lok Sabha and was the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Sara was married to Congress leader Sachin Pilot, but they divorced in late 2023.

Political career

Entry into politics

At that time his father Sheikh Abdullah was the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq Abdullah was elected to the Lok Sabha unopposed as a founding party member of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference. from Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency in the 1980 General Election.

Chief Minister, 1982–1984

Abdullah was a novice in the political arena of Jammu and Kashmir when he was appointed president of the National Conference in August 1981. His main qualification was that he was the son of Sheikh Abdullah. After his father's death in 1982, Farooq Abdullah became the chief minister of the state. In 1984, a faction of the National conference led by his brother-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah broke away, leading to the collapse of his government and his dismissal. Shah subsequently became the Chief Minister with the support of the Congress.

1984–1996

In 1986, G.M. Shah's government was dismissed after the communal 1986 Kashmir riots in South Kashmir, and a new National Conference–Congress government was sworn in with Abdullah as the chief minister, after the Rajiv-Farooq accord.

A new election was held in 1987 and the National Conference–Congress alliance won the election amid allegations of fraud and widespread election rigging by the National Conference. This period saw a rise in militancy in the state, with the return of trained militants in J&K and incidents that included the kidnapping of the daughter of the Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The period also witnessed the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley. Subsequently, Farooq Abdullah resigned in protest after Jagmohan was appointed the governor, and the state's assembly was dismissed. He subsequently moved to the United Kingdom.

Chief Minister, 1996–2002

After returning to India, and winning the Legislative Assembly elections in 1996, Abdullah was once again sworn in as chief minister of the state, his fifth time. His government lasted for a full six-year term. In 1999, the National Conference joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led National Democratic Alliance, and his son Omar Abdullah was subsequently appointed a union minister of state for External Affairs.

Subsequent political career

In the 2002 Legislative Assembly elections, Omar Abdullah was chosen to lead the National Conference, while Farooq Abdullah intended to continue his political career at the Central level. The National Conference lost the election and a coalition government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took office. On that year Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 promised to make Abdullah the vice-president, but later reneged on his promise because of Abdul Kalam's nomination to President and Krishan Kant's disagree.

Farooq Abdullah was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 from Jammu and Kashmir and re-elected in 2009. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha in May 2009 and won a seat in the Lok Sabha from Srinagar. Abdullah joined the United Progressive Alliance government as a Cabinet Minister of New and Renewable Energy.

Farooq Abdullah meets with Princess Astrid of Belgium in 2013 in New Delhi.

Farooq Abdullah with the President of Mongolia Tsakhia Elbegdorj during his oath taking ceremony in Ulaanbaatar in 2013.

Abdullah contested the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat again in the 2014 General Election, but was defeated by the People's Democratic Party candidate Tariq Hameed Karra. In 2017, Tariq Hameed Karra resigned from the position, leading to a by-election for the Srinagar parliamentary seat. Abdullah got 48,555 votes and defeated PDP candidate Nazir Ahmed Khan by 10,700 votes.

On 16 September 2019, Abdullah became the first mainstream politician to be detained under the Public Safety Act. Prior to this, Abdullah was under house arrest since the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. He was released from house detention under the PSA after seven and a half months on 13 March 2020.

In 2022, before the election of the President of India, Mamata Bannerjee along with several other opposition leaders had proposed Abdullah's name as the Opposition's candidate. But Abdullah declined the offer stating that he wanted to remain in active politics for more years and concentrated on the Kashmir Union Territory issue.

370 Hearing

After his son Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah made his presence in the Supreme court of India in relation to Article 370 hearing.