(L) NC MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi and (R) Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah.
Credit: PTI Photos
Srinagar: For the first time since 2002, National Conference’s (NC) Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi found himself excluded from the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting — and he chose that very day to mount a pointed show of defiance by launching a politically charged outreach in Ganderbal, the home turf of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
While the NC leadership convened in Srinagar on Thursday to introspect on recent setbacks, including the Budgam by-poll defeat, Ruhullah travelled instead to Bunpora, Tulmulla, to meet local farmers. The timing — and the choice of Omar’s constituency — has been widely read as a deliberate snub to the top leadership and a public escalation of his long-simmering rift with the Abdullahs.
Speaking to reporters in Ganderbal, Ruhullah confirmed his exclusion from the meeting, calling it unprecedented in his political career. “If the working committee meeting is going on, I am a permanent member of it. This is the first time since 2002 that I have not been invited,” he said.
His office had earlier clarified that he “has neither been invited nor is aware” of any such meeting in Srinagar.
Ruhullah, who has been increasingly vocal against the party’s shifting positions — particularly on reservation rationalisation and its post-Article 370 political line — has already distanced himself from the NC’s organisational affairs for months. Thursday’s comments, layered over his parallel political engagements, have now pushed the estrangement into open view.
His schedule in Ganderbal also includes a visit to the family of a youth from Kangan who died in the Red Fort blast in New Delhi, adding a sensitive personal dimension to his political messaging and signalling an attempt to deepen grassroots outreach at a time when the NC is attempting to stabilise itself after recent losses.
Amid growing speculation that he may be preparing to float a separate political front, Ruhullah dismissed the talk. “I have not kept a distance from any party, nor have I spoken to anyone to form another party,” he said.
Reiterating the ideological divide with the current leadership, he added, “We made promises to the people that we would fight for the return of protections linked to Article 370. We received votes on that. We cannot switch to a different language after getting that mandate.”
As the NC’s top brass in Srinagar deliberated over electoral setbacks and strategy corrections, Ruhullah’s high-visibility outreach in Omar Abdullah’s stronghold underscored a deepening internal fault line — one that has now moved unmistakably from private discord to open political posturing at a critical moment for the party.