Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi NC Exit: Article 370 Rift Puts Kashmir Politics at a Crossroads
By: Javid Amin | 19 September 2026
Srinagar: What began as an internal disagreement inside the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference has now developed into one of the party’s most consequential political disputes since its return to power.
Srinagar Lok Sabha MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has announced that he intends to resign from both the National Conference and Parliament in November, following months of increasingly public disagreements with the party leadership over Article 370, statehood and the political direction of the NC.
The proposed resignation followed a direct challenge from NC president Farooq Abdullah, who asked Ruhullah to resign from Parliament and seek a fresh mandate if he believed his political standing was independent of the party.
Ruhullah’s response went considerably further than a routine disagreement.
He questioned whether the NC had diluted the constitutional commitments on which it sought votes in the 2024 Assembly election and argued that treating statehood as the outer limit of Jammu and Kashmir’s political aspirations risked accepting the post-August 2019 constitutional order.
He subsequently confirmed that he would resign from the party and Lok Sabha, reportedly planning to submit his resignation on November 3, the death anniversary of his father, the late Aga Syed Mehdi.
The development does not automatically create a new political bloc. Nor does it establish that the PDP or another opposition formation will absorb Ruhullah’s support.
But it does expose a significant ideological fault line inside the NC: how far should the party continue its demand for the restoration of Article 370 when its government is simultaneously pursuing the restoration of statehood?
That question now sits at the centre of the dispute.
From dissent to resignation
Ruhullah’s break with the NC did not happen overnight.
For months, the Srinagar MP had publicly questioned the party’s emphasis on statehood rather than Article 370.
In July, he distanced himself from the NC’s planned Jantar Mantar protest for restoration of statehood, arguing that the party had sought a mandate on the issue of Article 370 and should continue to pursue that demand. He said he would instead take his campaign directly to the people.
He had also rejected reports that he was already preparing to launch a new political party.
At that stage, the disagreement remained within the broad boundaries of an internal party argument.
That changed in August.
Farooq Abdullah publicly challenged Ruhullah to resign and seek a fresh mandate. The challenge transformed what had largely been an ideological dispute into a direct test of political legitimacy.
Ruhullah accepted the challenge in principle and subsequently announced his intention to leave both the party and Parliament.
The significance is therefore not simply that one MP may leave a political party.
It is that the dispute has moved from policy disagreement to a question of who represents the political mandate in Srinagar and, more broadly, what the NC’s post-2019 political identity should be.
Why Article 370 is at the centre of the dispute
Ruhullah’s criticism is rooted in the NC’s position during the 2024 Assembly election.
He has argued that the party sought votes on restoring the constitutional position associated with Article 370 and that its present focus on statehood does not fully reflect that political commitment.
In his letter to Farooq Abdullah, Ruhullah questioned whether the party had made promises that it knew it could not fulfil. He also challenged the idea that Jammu and Kashmir’s political aspirations should be confined to what the BJP-led government at the Centre is willing to concede.
His argument is essentially about the difference between restoring statehood and restoring the pre-August 2019 constitutional arrangement.
Those are not the same demand.
Statehood would restore Jammu and Kashmir’s status as a state within the Indian Union.
Article 370, as it existed before August 2019, provided a much broader constitutional framework governing the relationship between J&K and the Union.
The Supreme Court upheld the constitutional changes relating to Article 370 in December 2023.
That means the NC’s present political campaign operates within a fundamentally different constitutional environment from the one that existed before 2019.
Ruhullah’s position is that the political struggle should nevertheless continue around the restoration of those constitutional guarantees.
The party leadership has placed greater emphasis on statehood.
That difference has become the fault line.
Farooq Abdullah’s challenge changed the political equation
Farooq Abdullah’s intervention was unusually direct.
Rather than treating Ruhullah’s criticism as internal dissent, the NC president challenged him to leave Parliament and return to the electorate.
The underlying question was straightforward: was Ruhullah’s 2024 victory primarily a personal mandate or a National Conference mandate?
Ruhullah won the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in 2024 on the NC ticket with 356,866 votes, securing 52.85 percent of the vote. PDP candidate Waheed Ur Rehman Para finished second with 168,450 votes, or 24.95 percent.
Those figures establish the electoral scale of his victory.
They do not, however, establish how much of that mandate belonged personally to Ruhullah and how much was attributable to the NC organisation, its alliance environment or broader electoral factors.
That is precisely the question Farooq Abdullah’s challenge has placed into the political debate.
If Ruhullah resigns from Parliament as planned, the question will become considerably more concrete because the Srinagar seat would eventually have to be dealt with through the constitutional electoral process.
Ruhullah’s political identity is larger than his parliamentary seat
Ruhullah is not simply another NC MP.
He has developed a distinct political profile centred on constitutional rights, Article 370, statehood, political dignity and what he describes as the protection of J&K’s identity.
His public criticism of his own party has given that profile greater visibility.
It has also allowed him to appeal beyond conventional party structures.
That does not automatically translate into an independent electoral base.
The distinction is important.
A leader can command significant attention outside a party without possessing the organisational network, booth-level machinery, financial resources and candidate structure required to build a durable political organisation.
Ruhullah himself appeared conscious of that distinction when he rejected speculation in July that he had already formed a new party.
The question now is whether resignation will remain a political act of dissent or become the first step towards a larger organisational project.
There is no definitive answer yet.
A new political platform is possible, but not established
Much of the speculation surrounding Ruhullah has focused on the possibility of a new party or independent political platform.
At present, that remains speculation.
The confirmed development is his stated intention to resign from the NC and Lok Sabha.
Whether he contests another election, launches a party, joins an existing political formation or continues his campaign through a broader civil-society platform remains a separate question.
That uncertainty matters because political influence in Kashmir has historically depended not only on ideological resonance but also on organisational structures.
The next stage of Ruhullah’s politics will therefore be closely watched for signs of organisation-building.
Will he establish a formal political platform?
Will local leaders join him?
Will independent activists associate themselves with his campaign?
Will the PDP seek cooperation?
Will sections of the NC attempt reconciliation?
Those questions remain open.
PDP sees an ideological space, but an alliance is not automatic
The Peoples Democratic Party occupies an important position in this unfolding political debate.
PDP leaders, including Mehbooba Mufti and Iltija Mufti, have themselves criticised aspects of the NC government’s performance and have continued to raise questions about constitutional rights and political commitments.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has also publicly backed Ruhullah’s call for restoration of Article 370 and statehood, while criticising the NC government over what he described as a departure from its election commitments.
These developments show that Ruhullah’s position is finding support from some voices outside the NC.
But support for a particular demand is not the same thing as a formal political alliance.
There is currently no established evidence that Ruhullah and the PDP have agreed to form a common political platform.
That distinction will be important as speculation grows.
What happens to the NC’s ideological balance?
The immediate organisational question for the NC is whether Ruhullah’s departure remains an isolated rupture or exposes a wider disagreement among its supporters.
The National Conference has historically had to balance two different political imperatives.
One is the preservation of its long-standing position on J&K’s constitutional status.
The other is the practical politics of governing within the post-2019 constitutional framework.
Since returning to power in 2024, the Omar Abdullah government has pursued restoration of statehood as a central demand.
Ruhullah argues that this does not go far enough.
The difference is not merely semantic.
It represents two different political approaches.
One prioritises a demand that the Centre has repeatedly said it is willing to consider, namely restoration of statehood.
The other insists that the political agenda must continue to include restoration of the constitutional arrangement associated with Article 370.
That disagreement is now public.
Omar Abdullah is caught in the middle of the dispute
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has become an important part of Ruhullah’s criticism.
The Srinagar MP has questioned the government’s political priorities and accused the leadership of moving away from the commitments made during the election campaign.
This creates a difficult situation for the NC government.
Omar has consistently demanded restoration of statehood.
At the same time, the government has to work within the constitutional structure that currently exists.
The Centre controls several important aspects of the Union Territory’s administration, while the elected government remains responsible for a wide range of governance functions.
Ruhullah’s criticism essentially asks whether those constraints should alter the party’s political objectives.
The NC leadership appears to have chosen a more pragmatic emphasis on statehood and governance.
Ruhullah has chosen to keep Article 370 at the centre.
The disagreement is now too public to be dismissed as a minor internal difference.
The Srinagar mandate adds another layer
Ruhullah’s decision is especially significant because he is an elected Lok Sabha member.
He won Srinagar with a substantial margin in 2024.
His proposed resignation therefore has consequences beyond party organisation.
If he follows through, the constituency would lose its current representative and the electoral process would determine the next occupant of the seat.
The political significance of any subsequent contest would depend on the candidates, alliances, turnout and issues at that time.
It would not be possible to determine in advance whether the seat would remain with the NC, move to another party or produce an independent victory.
But the contest could become an important test of how voters respond to the disagreement between Ruhullah’s constitutional position and the NC leadership’s political strategy.
The opposition landscape could become more fluid
Ruhullah’s exit does not automatically mean opposition unity or fragmentation.
Both outcomes remain possible depending on what happens next.
If Ruhullah remains independent
He could continue campaigning around Article 370, constitutional safeguards and political dignity without joining another established party.
That would give voters another political vehicle but could also create another organisational centre in an already competitive political field.
The actual effect would depend on whether he develops a functioning political organisation and whether voters translate support for his positions into electoral support.
If he works with the PDP
A relationship with the PDP could bring together political voices that have criticised the NC from different directions.
But cooperation would require agreement on leadership, electoral strategy and organisational arrangements.
There is currently no confirmed alliance.
If the NC attempts reconciliation
The dispute could still produce negotiations within the party.
Ruhullah has previously indicated that he respected Farooq Abdullah and suggested that certain political changes could make him reconsider aspects of his decision.
That leaves some room for political dialogue, although his later announcement of a November resignation makes the situation considerably more advanced than it was earlier in the year.
If he builds a new platform
This would represent the most significant organisational development.
A new party would have to establish structures beyond Srinagar, identify candidates, develop a policy programme and sustain political activity between election cycles.
Its ability to do that would determine whether the current dispute becomes a lasting political realignment or remains primarily an episode of dissent within the NC.
The BJP and Centre remain part of the political backdrop
The dispute is taking place within a larger confrontation over Jammu and Kashmir’s post-2019 political settlement.
The BJP has consistently defended the constitutional changes introduced in 2019 and has rejected restoration of Article 370 as the political objective pursued by the NC and other parties.
Ruhullah’s criticism of his own party therefore has significance beyond NC organisation.
His argument that the political agenda should not be limited to statehood keeps the constitutional question alive in mainstream electoral politics.
At the same time, it would be premature to conclude that the BJP or Centre will necessarily gain electorally from the NC dispute.
The effect depends on how voters interpret the disagreement, how other parties respond and whether the issue remains central when elections are held.
Political fragmentation can produce different outcomes in different constituencies.
The youth question
One of the most important variables will be whether Ruhullah’s message connects with younger voters.
His political language focuses heavily on constitutional rights, dignity, identity and the promises made during the 2024 election.
That can resonate with voters who believe mainstream politics has moved too far towards administrative pragmatism.
But younger voters are not a single political constituency.
Jobs, education, recruitment, economic opportunity, electricity, tourism, healthcare and everyday governance also compete for attention.
Ruhullah’s challenge will therefore be to connect the constitutional question with the everyday concerns of voters.
A political message centred exclusively on Article 370 may mobilise one segment of the electorate while leaving others less engaged.
Whether he can broaden that appeal will become clearer only through sustained public campaigning.
What the dispute says about post-2019 Kashmir politics
The deeper significance of the Ruhullah-NC confrontation lies in what it reveals about mainstream politics after 2019.
Before August 2019, the major regional parties operated within a political system in which autonomy, Article 370 and statehood were intertwined.
After 2019, the political vocabulary changed.
Statehood became a separate demand.
Article 370 became a constitutional issue already adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
The elected government returned in 2024, but within a Union Territory framework.
That created a new dilemma for regional parties.
Should they concentrate on achievable institutional restoration, such as statehood, or continue demanding restoration of the earlier constitutional order even though the Centre and Supreme Court have taken a different position?
The NC has increasingly emphasised statehood.
Ruhullah is challenging that strategy from within the party’s own political tradition.
That makes his proposed departure more consequential than a routine disagreement over party discipline.
A test for political accountability
Ruhullah’s resignation plan also raises an important democratic question.
If an elected representative leaves the party on whose ticket he won, what should happen next?
The constitutional framework provides mechanisms for resignation and replacement through elections where applicable.
But politically, the issue is more complicated.
Should the representative claim that the mandate was for his individual political position?
Should the party claim ownership of the mandate because it provided the symbol, organisation and platform?
Or should voters be given another opportunity to decide?
Farooq Abdullah’s challenge effectively puts the third option on the table.
Ruhullah’s decision to resign would therefore turn an internal party disagreement into a question that ultimately returns to the electorate.
November could mark a new chapter
Ruhullah’s stated plan to resign in November gives the NC and its dissident MP a limited period in which the dispute could still evolve.
The intervening weeks could bring further exchanges between Ruhullah and the Abdullah family, attempts at reconciliation, political outreach by other parties or the emergence of a new organisational initiative.
For now, the facts are clearer than the predictions.
Ruhullah has announced his intention to leave.
He has linked that decision to disagreements over Article 370 and the NC’s political direction.
Farooq Abdullah has challenged him to seek a fresh mandate.
The NC has not ceased to exist as a political force, nor has a new Ruhullah-led party been established.
The PDP has political space to engage with the debate, but no confirmed alliance has emerged.
And the BJP remains the principal political force at the Centre against which the constitutional dispute is ultimately framed.
What could define the next phase
The next phase of this story will be determined by a handful of concrete developments.
First, will Ruhullah actually submit the resignation in November?
He has said he will, but the formal act has yet to occur.
Second, will he remain outside the NC without creating a new party?
His earlier statements show that he has not automatically embraced the idea of launching a new organisation.
Third, will the PDP or other political groups seek a formal understanding with him?
Public sympathy and political cooperation are different things.
Fourth, can the NC contain the ideological disagreement?
The leadership’s response will influence whether the episode remains a personal political rupture or becomes a wider discussion about the party’s post-2019 identity.
And finally, how will voters interpret the dispute?
That is the question no political party can answer on its own.
The larger story is about the direction of Kashmir’s mainstream politics
Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi’s proposed departure from the National Conference is therefore about more than one MP leaving one party.
It reflects a deeper disagreement over what Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream politics should seek after the 2019 constitutional changes.
Should the immediate priority be restoration of statehood?
Should the political campaign continue to demand restoration of Article 370?
Can both objectives be pursued simultaneously?
And how should a regional party balance constitutional aspirations with the practical responsibilities of governing a Union Territory?
Ruhullah has chosen to make those questions public.
His decision has already exposed a significant fault line inside the NC. Whether it produces a new political organisation, closer cooperation among opposition parties, further fragmentation or eventually a negotiated reconciliation remains unresolved.
What is certain is that the dispute has moved beyond private conversations inside the National Conference.
With a resignation date now publicly discussed, the next stage will not be decided solely by party leaders.
It will ultimately be tested against the political choices of Jammu and Kashmir’s electorate.
