Omar Abdullah, The Renaissance Man: Redefining Leadership and Vision in Kashmir

The 53-year-old is now all set to be the new chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, roughly 16 years after he first ascended to the chair.

June 4, 2024 was a moment of elation for India’s opposition parties as they managed to deny the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a third successive Lok Sabha majority against tall odds. But in a corner of Srinagar’s Gupkar Road, there was shock as the third-generation scion of the Valley’s first family, former chief minister Omar Abdullah, slumped to an unexpected defeat against then-jailed separatist Engineer Rashid. Buoyed by a groundswell of public sympathy, the shoestring campaign run by Rashid’s son triumphed over the oldest political party in the Valley. Omar lost by over 200,000 votes.

For a moment, it seemed all was lost. Since the Centre stripped J&K of its special status and statehood in 2019, an already precarious tightrope walk for mainstream politicians had become particularly tough. Abdullah, who had spent months in detention in 2019, seemed to take the defeat personally. When assembly elections were on the anvil, he declared that he would not contest till statehood was not restored. Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha’s decision to centralise powers dampened the mood further. Even when the party and its cadre convinced him to fight the elections, he filed his papers from two seats – Budgam, apart from his traditional borough of Ganderbal. Detractors said he was afraid of losing again.

On Tuesday, his redemption arc was complete as the 53-year-old led his party to its strongest showing in history after trouncing a litany of smaller parties and independents. In its surge to becoming the largest party in the UT, the NC came close to forming the government on its own; along with its partner, the Congress, it even built a cushion in case the lieutenant governor nominated five additional members and pushed up the halfway mark.

The 53-year-old is now all set to be the new chief minister of J&K, roughly 16 years after he first ascended to the chair. He is in a much stronger position compared to 2008, when his party had only 28 seats. This time, his emotive campaign has resurrected the NC, built it as the only mainstream option in the Valley, and hastened the collapse of the Peoples Democratic Party. And he won both seats he contested – Budgam by 18,485 votes, Ganderbal by 10,574 votes.

“Democracy has prevailed in J&K after a long time. People have announced their verdict… People worked hard and voted for me, now I will work hard for the next five years for their welfare,” he said.

Omar is the third generation of a family that boasts of two former chief ministers – his father Farooq, who was at the helm thrice times between 1982 to 84 and 1986 to 90 and 1996 to 2002, and his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah, who founded the NC and was J&K’s first prime minister after its accession to India.

He entered politics in 1998 as a member of the Lok Sabha. He represented Srinagar in the Lower House three times. He also served as Union minister of state for external affairs in the Atal Bihari government before resigning on in 2002 for party affairs. He became NC chief in 2002 , but lost his first assembly elections in 2002 from Ganderbal.

Omar said the vote in Kashmir was against the policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party. “People have voted resoundingly to reject the politics of BJP and its associated parties whether those were BJP’s B or C teams. And those who were called from jails to fight elections, their situation is also not good,” he said, in a reference to independent candidates backed either by Rashid or the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Omar said the reason he contested elections was that if he stayed away from polls, he could not seek votes for other candidates. “I know it has limited powers than the erstwhile assembly but we will fight for our rights,” he said.

He led the NC campaign, along with his father, 86 -year-old Farooq, held the party together and gave half a dozen tickets to younger faces, of which all emerged victorious.

“In the past five years, efforts were made to finish the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference. Many political parties were established to finish the NC. They got wiped off and have no address now,” he said soon after collecting his victory certificate from Budgam.

But his second stint is going to be very different from his first. J&K is now an UT, and LG Manoj Sinha holds key powers in the administration. “A lot of things can be done as a Union Territory, clearly some things can’t but we expect that J&K will not remain a UT forever. We expect the honourable PM will do the honourable thing and return statehood to JK at the earliest and then the rest of our manifesto will be implemented,” the NC vice president said.

The NC manifesto promised a return of statehood and the restoration of Article 370. “The Prime Minister, the home minister, they are all honourable men. In their speeches and interventions in Parliament, through their representative in the Supreme Court, they have promised restoration of statehood. So I believe it should happen at the earliest. And then obviously our priorities will go forward from there,” Omar said.

But he also made it clear that the J&K government could not afford to have an antagonistic relation with the Centre. “Once the new government is in place, whoever the chief minister of J&K is, I would expect them to travel to Delhi to meet the PM, the home minister and other leaders to impress upon them that the mandate of the people of J&K was for restoration of statehood, was for development and peace and whoever the CM is, I hope they are able to establish a decent working relationship with the GoI.

“There are far too many problems that J&K has and it cannot afford an antagonistic relationship with the Central government. We will have to find a way of working together, and I hope that the Union government will respect the mandate of the people,” he added.

The NC vice president said that, in a day or two, he expected party chief Farooq to call the legislature party meeting. “Now through our work for the next five years we have to make ourselves eligible for the responsibility given to us by the people.”