Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi Resigns from National Conference, Accusing Leadership of Lying to People
Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi Tuesday signed a two-page resignation from the podium, in front of thousands of supporters in Budgam. The signature, he said, ensures his freedom from the National Conference. He has also emailed his resignation from the Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. With this, he has ended his 24-year association with the party. Ruhullah spoke directly to his voters at the Behisht-e-Zehra park on Tuesday, tearing into the National Conference and the politics of J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. He accused NC president Farooq Abdullah of lying to the people of J&K about the fight for the restoration of Article 370, and backtracking on their promises to the people. He also addressed the Centre, asserting that the people of J&K βwill speak to you on their terms, not on the agenda you set.β After signing the resignation letter, in a symbolic gesture, he handed over the document to Muhammad Ashraf Mattoo, father of 17-year-old Tufail Mattoo, who was killed in 2010 in alleged police firing when Omar Abdullah was chief minister. Ruhullah contested the 2002 assembly election from Budgam after his father, Aga Syed Mehdi, was assassinated in a suspected militant attack in Budgam on November 3, 2000. He chose his fatherβs death anniversary as the day to announce his resignation from both party and post. He has represented the Budgam assembly constituency over three tenures and successfully contested the Srinagar parliamentary election for the first time in 2024. The seat was previously contested and represented by NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah and Ruhullahβs candidature from the seat came after Abdullah declined from contesting again, given his stronghold over central Kashmirβs Budgam district and importantly, his stature as a Shia religious leader. After winning the seat, Ruhullah along with senior NC leadership was made part of the NCβs manifesto committee and that manifesto eventually became one of the key sticking points between Ruhullah and the NC. He also campaigned for several candidates in the 2024 Assembly elections, including for Omar Abdullah, who contested the Budgam constituency as a second seat. The move has drawn praise from the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, with its national vice-president Ram Madhav saying Ruhullah had the blessing of βour peopleβ. βI would not like to comment as it is the internal matter of the National Conference. But itβs all before you that the National Conference is visibly divided today, and Ruhullah is holding the rally today with the blessings of our people,β said Madhav, who played a key role in the formation of the PDP-BJP coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015-16, after the 2014 Assembly elections threw up a hung verdict. He, however, denied the BJPβs role in the developments within the National Conference. The BJP leader also declined to speculate on possible political developments in the future, saying it was too early to draw such conclusions. βToday, one of their own MPs has come out and is holding a programmeβ¦. This is their internal affair. What do we have to do with it?β he asked. βLet me reiterate that we have no involvement in the internal affairs of the NC. Whatever statements our MLAs make are a separate matter.β The rift Differences between him and the party spilled into public domain after he accompanied students protesting the lack of adequate representation in the open merit in education and jobs in J&K. In December 2024, Ruhullah stood with them outside the chief ministerβs residence at Gupkar Road. He was, since then, not seen at the partyβs internal meetings and the party MLAs remained absent from Ruhullahβs constituency-related administrative meetings. He then began questioning the partyβs departure from its ideological stand and accused them of abandoning its core principles. On Tuesday, Ruhullah, tore into the Omar Abdullah governmentβs performance on several promises of the partyβs election manifesto. βRationalisation of reservation, 200 units of electricity, restoration of constitutional guarantees, that was the fight. You donβt remember how you pulled your cap off your head and placed it before the people,β he said. Accusing the CM of βdisappointing every Kashmiriβ by going to the Prime Minister and Home Minister with shawls after he won the Assembly election, Ruhullah said, βYou lied and misled the people, you used me. My people had faith on me.β He also repeated Omarβs words to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration on the Z Morh tunnel at Sonmarg in January 2025 where he said, βPrime Minister saheb, you might have seen the weather has supported you; there is not a single cloud in the sky.β Ruhullah said that if he were truly Kashmiri, he would know that a lack of clouds during the chillai kalan (Kashmirβs coldest period in the year) βis actually a bad omen.β βHow would a BJP government (in J&K) look any different from the one we have?β Ruhullah asked. He highlighted that the NC says that those who have taken away constitutional guarantees enshrined in Article 370 will not be the ones to return it. βWhere was this language during the elections?β he asked, adding that he will not be part of this lie, nor will he let the people of Kashmir be a part of it. Addressing the BJP and the RSS, Ruhullah said, βEnough is enough. The people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh will not compromise with their dignity any longer. You can use as much force as you want, but our constitutional protections are our right, and we consider those our dignity.β Accusing the NC government of being βenslavedβ by the Centre, Ruhullah said, β Kashmir apni sharton pe baat karenge, tumhare alfazon mein baat nahin karega .β Before signing the resignation, he announced that he is keen to find honest young people who have compassion, who are willing to join politics, and who will fight for the rights and dignity of their people. βI will go as far as I need to find them,β he said. The National Conference reacted sharply to Ruhullahβs allegations, saying in a fiery statement that his resignation had come βtoo lateβ and accusing him of being instrumental in the partyβs defeat in the Budgam by-election. In a statement, the party said Tuesday: βAga Ruhullahβs speech was a manifestation of his mental and moral bankruptcy, and an example of his self-obsession. While invoking the holy Quran and the divine message of dignity and respect for human beings, Ruhullahβs speech was full of derogatory, abusive and unparliamentary language against NC leadership. The language used by him only reflects who he is.β The party also said Ruhullah should have resigned a year ago, βwhen he chose to join the forces who were rattled by the mandate to NCβ. Accusing him of βnarcissistic conductβ, the NC said Ruhullah βowes his whole political existence to NCβ. The NC also accused him of βrememberingβ to resign only when he was asked to, referring to Farooq Abdullahβs comments earlier this year urging Ruhullah to quit. βHe is a man who happily remained in office as a minister in 2010 until he was removed in a general reshuffle. He was happy to fight elections in 2014 on the JKNC ticket and didnβt remember 2010 then. In fact, he conveniently forgot all about it until 2026, 16 years later.β The party also questioned his record in Parliament, asking, βWhat has Aga Ruhullah done in Parliament on special status? Wasnβt he elected to the parliament to represent the sentiment of people and garner support of secular parties and MPs in the parliament?β It said Ruhullah had been βsentβ to Parliament to speak about the dispossession of people and how their will, represented by the elected government, had been βundermined and belittled by the central government and its appointed Lieutenant Governor in an attempt to delegitimise the vote and elected governmentβ. Reiterating its βlimitationsβ in functioning under a Union Territory setup, the NC said, βit has carefully chosen its roadmap on the issues which are directly linked to our existence and identity.β The NC said its push for restoration of statehood βis not and will never beβ at the expense of special status. βProtection and preservation of our identity and constitutional rights form the foundation of NCβs political ideology. Abandoning it means abandoning the party and the politics it has stood for over 90 years,β the party said.
