Omar Abdullah

Omar Abdullah (born 10 March 1970) is an Indian politician who served as former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and Chairperson of Jammu and Kashmir National Conference since 2009.

Omar Abdullah was born on 10 March 1970 in Rochford, Essex, United Kingdom.

He is a grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, and the only son of Farooq Abdullah, a physician.

All three men have held the position of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

His mother, Mollie, an Englishwoman and a nurse by profession, has said that she was not in favor of him joining politics.

He studied at the Burn Hall School located at Sonwar Bagh, Srinagar and then at Lawrence School, Sanawar.

He is a B.Com.

graduate of Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics.

He was employed with ITC Limited and The Oberoi Group till the age of 29 before entering politics.

He did commence an MBA with the University of Strathclyde, however due his election to the Lok Sabha, he dropped out from the course.

He married Payal Nath from Delhi.

She is the daughter of a retired army officer, Ram Nath.

Omar joined politics in 1998, as a Lok Sabha member, a feat he repeated in subsequent three elections and also remained the Union minister; he took on the mantle of National Conference from his father in 2002, though lost his own seat of Ganderbal during the 2002 state assembly elections, and so did his party, the political mandate; four years later, he contested once again from the same seat and won in the 2008 Kashmir State Elections.

In run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Omar Abdullah showed unwillingness to go for a seat sharing agreement with other political parties under the INDIA alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, and insisted on NC contesting all seats in Kashmir region.

In 1998, at the age of 28, Omar Abdullah was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha, becoming the youngest member.

In 1998–99, he was a member of both the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Ministry of Tourism's Consultative Committee.

In 1999, he was elected to 13th Lok Sabha (2nd term as a Member of Parliament).

On 13 October 1999, he took oath as Union Minister of State, Commerce and Industry.

He was the Union Minister of State for External affairs in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government, from 23 July 2001 to 23 December 2002.

On 22 July 2001, he became the youngest Union Minister, when he was made Union Minister of State for External Affairs.

He resigned from NDA government in October 2002 to concentrate on party work.

He resigned from the post on 23 December 2002, to concentrate on party work.

On 23 June 2002, he became the President of the National Conference party, replacing his father, Farooq Abdullah.

He lost his Ganderbal seat in the Kashmir assembly elections held in September–October 2002.

Abdullah was re-elected as the National Conference party's president in 2006.

In March 2006, much to the disapproval of the centre Omar Abdullah had a one-on-one meeting with Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, in Islamabad.

This was the first meeting of its kind between a mainstream politician from Jammu & Kashmir and the Pakistani government, thereby re-enforcing Omar's growing commitment to the solution of the Jammu & Kashmir cause.

He had a role in director Apoorva Lakhia’s film, Mission Istanbul (2008) playing himself.

On 22 July 2008, Omar gave a speech during the 2008 Lok Sabha vote of confidence, which was praised and won him fans on the internet.

He became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and youngest lok sabha member, after forming a government in coalition with the Congress party, on 5 January 2009.

After the 2008 Kashmir Elections, the National Conference won the maximum number of seats, and formed a coalition government with the Congress party, and Omar was sworn in as the 11th Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 January 2009 at the General Zoravar Singh Auditorium in the University of Jammu, Jammu, raising hope amongst the people of Jammu and Kashmir who had been reeling under insurgency and violence caused by cross border terrorism since 1989.

In 2009, Omar Abdullah was accused of covering up the rape and murder of two young women in Shopian.

Many regarded this as Abdullah's first failure, as even moderates felt Abdullah had bowed to pressure from New Delhi.

Mr. Abdullah has been appointed as a member of the Coordination Committee of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance at its Mumbai convention on 1 September 2023.

The coordination committee will decide the national agenda, common campaign issues and common program of the country's main opposition alliance (I.N.D.I.A.).

In September 2011, Omar confirmed that he and his wife have separated.

His younger sister, Sara, was married to Sachin Pilot, son of Rajesh Pilot whose divorced news has come recently.

He was a member of 14th Lok Sabha, representing Srinagar constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, India.

He was the last Leader of opposition in the erstwhile state Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (Member of the Legislative Assembly from Beerwah constituency of Budgam district) before the assembly was dissolved in 2018 and the state of Jammu & Kashmir ceased to exist as on 6 August 2019.

On 6 February 2020 the Government of India booked him under the Public Safety Act (PSA) which was revoked on 24 March 2020.