Omar Abdullah: News

Omar Abdullah is a senior political leader of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir. He is the son of Farooq Abdullah, who himself was a three-time former CM of the state. He started his political career at the age of 28 with his election to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from the Srinagar constituency. He was re-elected in the 1999 General Elections and served as the Union Minister of State (MoS) for Commerce & Industry (1999-2001) as well as External Affairs (2001-02) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2002, Abdullah succeeded his father as the President of the JKNC and resigned from his duties in the Union Government. His party and INC came to power in an alliance after the 2008 J&K assembly elections, with Abdullah being sworn in as the Chief Minister in January 2009. He served in this position till 2014, when the next elections were held, and the PDP-BJP alliance assumed power in 2015. In August 2019, when the special status and statehood of J&K was revoked by the Central government, Abdullah was detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for nearly nine months.