JOIN USI am NC president till someone is ready to take responsibilities: Farooq Abdullah
Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah, on Friday clarified that he had not stepped down as president of National Conference (NC) and will continue to hold the office till “someone else is ready to take the responsibilities."
“I am still the party chief till elections are held and someone else is ready to take the responsibilities of this post,” he told reporters, here.
On Thursday, Abdullah during a meeting of party leaders at the NC headquarters in Srinagar had announced about his stepping down as the president. “My health doesn't permit me to lead the party now,” octogenarian Abdullah said.
A senior party leader told DH that Abdullah’s son Omar, also a former chief minister, who is currently the vice-president of the party, is likely to become the new president.
“However, the timing of the new election will be decided in due course of time. In all likelihood, the decision will be announced on December 5 at the mausoleum of the party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah at Hazratbal in Srinagar,” he said.
The flamboyant Abdullah was elected to the Lok Sabha first time unopposed from Srinagar Parliament seat in 1980. A novice in the political arena of J&K, he was appointed president of the NC in August 1981 by his father Sheikh Abdullah.
After his father's death in 1982, Abdullah became the chief minister of the erstwhile state before a faction of the NC led by his brother-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah broke away, leading to the collapse of his government in 1984.
A new election was held in 1987 and the NC-Congress alliance won amid allegations of large-scale fraud which paved the way for a rise in militancy in 1989. Abdullah resigned in January 1990 in protest after Jagmohan was appointed the Governor. He subsequently moved to the United Kingdom, where his wife Molly, a nurse of British origin, lives.
After returning to Kashmir, and winning 1996 Assembly elections, Abdullah was once again sworn in as chief minister and his government lasted for a full six-year term. After the NC lost the 2002 Assembly election, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and re-elected in 2009. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha in May 2009 and won a seat in the Lok Sabha from Srinagar.
Abdullah joined the UPA-II government and remained a cabinet minister till 2014. However, in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he lost from Srinagar constituency before winning it back in the 2017 by-election and 2019 General Election.
On September 16, 2019, Abdullah became the first mainstream politician to be detained under the Public Safety Act. Prior to this, he was under house arrest since the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. He was released from house detention under the PSA after seven and a half months on March 13, 2020.
He is facing a case in connection with a money-laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the J&K Cricket Association (JKCA). On December 19, 2020, the Enforcement Directorate had attached property worth Rs 11.86 crore belonging to Abdullah.
According to the ED, from 2005 to 2011, the JKCA received Rs 109.78 crore from the BCCI. However, according to the ED, funds to the tune of more than Rs 45 crore were siphoned, which included heavy cash withdrawals of around Rs 25 crore, with no corresponding justification.