SRINAGAR (The Thursday Times) — At least 17 legislators from the ruling National Conference in Indian-administered Kashmir have given party president Farooq Abdullah and his son, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, a 15-day ultimatum to end what they called “coterie culture” and “unilateral decisions”, in the most serious revolt the party has faced since returning to power.
The rebels met for four hours on Friday at the Srinagar home of legislator Qaiser Jamsheed Lone and passed a joint resolution to be sent to the leadership. Senior leaders Mubarak Gul, Nazir Gurezi and Abdul Majeed Larmi attended, along with an independent legislator.
“A kitchen cabinet system and the coterie culture have to end,” one legislator said. “There was no formal or informal consultation with the elected leaders ahead of the Cabinet expansion.” Others accused Omar Abdullah’s adviser Nasir Aslam Wani and MP Shami Oberoi of insulating the chief minister and imposing decisions on elected members.
The revolt follows Omar Abdullah’s expansion of his cabinet from six to nine ministers three days ago, which left several senior legislators out. About a dozen boycotted a dinner hosted by Farooq Abdullah afterwards. The rebels ruled out splitting the party “as of now”; the National Conference holds 42 seats in the 90-member assembly and its government has the backing of 50 legislators.
The party is also losing MP Aga Syed Ruhullah, who plans to resign from parliament on November 3 and announce his next move at a rally in central Kashmir. Ruhullah has accused the chief minister of reneging on election promises. “The crown prince and his cabal treat J&K as an estate passed down through the family,” he said on Friday.
Ruhullah’s office later confirmed that he will quit both the party and his Lok Sabha seat for Srinagar on November 3, accusing the National Conference of abandoning its election promise to fight for the restoration of Article 370, the special status New Delhi revoked in August 2019. “We demanded the restoration of Article 370, the release of prisoners and the protection of our rights. They sought power on those promises, then treated us as fools for expecting them to deliver,” the statement said. “There is no fixing this rot from within.”
