Srinagar, Aug 24: National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah on Monday launched a sharp attack on party MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, asking him to resign from the Lok Sabha and seek a fresh mandate if he believes his electoral victory was secured on the strength of his personal support rather than the party organisation.
The remarks came amid increasingly open differences between the veteran NC leadership and Ruhullah, who has in recent days intensified his criticism of the party and the Omar Abdullah-led government over Article 370, electoral promises and governance issues.
Reacting to Ruhullah’s position on Article 370, Farooq said nobody had prevented the Srinagar MP from raising the issue, but questioned the manner in which he was pursuing it.
“If he thinks Article 370 can be restored, he should take up the issue in Parliament,” Farooq said.
The NC president then challenged Ruhullah to test his claim of enjoying an independent political mandate by returning to the electorate.
“If you think people voted for you, resign and go back to them. We will see how many votes you get,” he said.
Farooq also stressed the importance of party discipline and loyalty to the organisation, particularly once the party has taken a decision in an election. Referring to the Budgam contest, he questioned how NC workers could have been expected to campaign against a candidate formally nominated by the party.
The exchange comes a day after Ruhullah, amid calls from sections within the party for his resignation, challenged the NC leadership to issue him a show-cause notice and reiterated that he would continue to fight for the restoration of Article 370.
Ruhullah has in recent months increasingly questioned what he sees as a dilution of the NC’s political position on Article 370. While the party leadership has continued to demand restoration of the region’s statehood, Ruhullah has maintained that the political mandate obtained by the NC cannot be reduced to the statehood issue and has called for a continued political and constitutional struggle over the changes made to Jammu and Kashmir’s status in 2019.
His criticism has also extended to the functioning of the government. Most recently, Ruhullah questioned the failure to implement the NC’s electoral promise of 200 units of free electricity and criticised the proposed increase in power tariffs. He argued that the government needed to explain the gap between its election commitments and its present policy.
The disagreement has consequently moved beyond Article 370 and into questions of governance, accountability and the direction of the National Conference itself.
Ruhullah, who defeated his nearest rival by more than 1.8 lakh votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Srinagar, had succeeded Farooq Abdullah as the NC’s parliamentary representative from the constituency. His electoral victory gave him an independent political profile within the party and has increasingly placed him at odds with sections of the NC leadership.
Ruhullah has also recently indicated that he has made up his mind to resign from Parliament within the coming months after taking his political fight to what he considers an appropriate level. The possibility of his resignation has added another dimension to the growing tensions within the party.
Asked about reports of an internal revolt or serious divisions within the National Conference, Farooq sought to play down the possibility, saying differences exist in every political organisation and should not automatically be interpreted as a revolt against its leadership.
He also drew a distinction between the party organisation and the government, maintaining that as NC president he should not interfere excessively in the day-to-day functioning of the administration.
Defending the organisation’s legacy, Farooq invoked the sacrifices made by generations of National Conference leaders and workers, saying the party had survived because of the commitment and loyalty of its grassroots cadre.
On Ruhullah’s political direction, Farooq advised the MP to seek guidance from the Quran and reiterated his view that he was currently following the “wrong path”.
The public rebuke represents a significant escalation in what has increasingly become an open political disagreement within the National Conference. While Ruhullah continues to project his criticism as an effort to hold the party and government accountable to their electoral commitments, the latest intervention by Farooq Abdullah makes clear that the party’s top leadership views his approach as increasingly at odds with organisational discipline.
