| Farooq Abdullah | |
| Birth Date: | 21 October 1937 |
| Birth Place: | Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, British India |
| Office: | Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha |
| Term Start: | November 2024 |
| Constituency: | Jammu and Kashmir |
| Term Start1: | 30 November 2002 |
| Term End1: | 29 November 2008 |
| Term Start2.: | 30November 2009 |
| Term End2.: | 29November 2015 |
| Office2: | Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha |
| Constituency2: | Srinagar |
| Term Start2: | 16 April 2017 |
| Predecessor2: | Tariq Hameed Karra |
| Term Start3: | 13 May 2009 |
| Term End3: | 12 May 2014 |
| Predecessor3: | Omar Abdullah |
| Successor3: | Tariq Hameed Karra |
| Constituency3: | Srinagar |
| Term Start4: | 6 January 1980 |
| Term End4: | 5 January 1983 |
| Predecessor4: | Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah |
| Successor4: | Abdul Rashid Kabuli |
| Constituency4: | Srinagar |
| Office5: | 4th Chief Minister of the state of Jammu & Kashmir |
| Term Start5: | 9 October 1996 |
| Term End5: | 18 October 2002 |
| Governor5: | K. V. Krishna Rao Girish Chandra Saxena |
| Predecessor5: | President's Rule |
| Successor5: | Mufti Mohammad Sayeed |
| Term Start6: | 7 November 1986 |
| Term End6: | 18 January 1990 |
| Governor6: | Jagmohan Malhotra K. V. Krishna Rao |
| Predecessor6: | Governor's Rule |
| Successor6: | Governor's Rule |
| Governor7: | Braj Kumar Nehru Jagmohan Malhotra |
| Term Start7: | 8 September 1982 |
| Term End7: | 2 July 1984 |
| Predecessor7: | Sheikh Abdullah |
| Successor7: | Ghulam Mohammad Shah |
| Office8: | Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy |
| Primeminister8: | Manmohan Singh |
| Term Start8: | 28 May 2009 |
| Term End8: | 26 May 2014 |
| Predecessor8: | Vilas Muttemwar |
| Successor8: | Piyush Goyal |
| Office9: | President of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference |
| Term Start9: | 2009 |
| 1Blankname9: | Chairman |
| 1Namedata9: | Omar Abdullah |
| Predecessor9: | Omar Abdullah |
| Term10: | 1981-2002 |
| Predecessor10: | Sheikh Abdullah |
| Successor10: | Omar Abdullah |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Party: | Jammu & Kashmir National Conference |
| Relations: | Sheikh Mustafa Kamal (brother) |
| Spouse: | Mollie Abdullah[1] |
| Residence: | Gupkar Road Srinagar, Kashmir |
| Alma Mater: | Tyndale Biscoe School and Sawai Man Singh Medical College |
| Occupation: | Politician |
| Termend2: | 4 June 2024 |
| Successor2: | Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi |
Farooq Abdullah (born 21 October 1937) is an Indian politician and the current president of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. He has served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on several occasions since 1982, and as the union minister for New and Renewable Energy between 2009 and 2014. He is the son of the 1st elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah. His son is the current chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah.
Farooq Abdullah was born to the veteran statesman and National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah and Begum Akbar Jehan Abdullah. He studied at Tyndale Biscoe School, and subsequently received his MBBS degree from SMS Medical College, Jaipur. He subsequently travelled to the UK to practice medicine.[2]
He is married to Molly, a nurse of British origin. They have a son, Omar, and three daughters, Safia, Hinna, and Sara. Their son Omar Abdullah is also involved in state and national politics, and is the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Sara was married to Congress leader Sachin Pilot, but they divorced in late 2023.[3]
At that time his father Sheikh Abdullah was the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq Abdullah was elected to the Lok Sabha unopposed as a founding party member of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference.[4] from Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency in the 1980 General Election.
Abdullah was a novice in the political arena of Jammu and Kashmir when he was appointed president of the National Conference in August 1981. His main qualification was that he was the son of Sheikh Abdullah. After his father's death in 1982, Farooq Abdullah became the chief minister of the state. In 1984, a faction of the National conference led by his brother-in-law Ghulam Mohammad Shah broke away, leading to the collapse of his government and his dismissal. Shah subsequently became the Chief Minister with the support of the Congress.
In 1986, G.M. Shah's government was dismissed after the communal 1986 Kashmir riots in South Kashmir, and a new National Conference–Congress government was sworn in with Abdullah as the chief minister, after the Rajiv-Farooq accord.
A new election was held in 1987 and the National Conference–Congress alliance won the election amid allegations of fraud and widespread election rigging by the National Conference. This period saw a rise in militancy in the state, with the return of trained militants in J&K and incidents that included the kidnapping of the daughter of the Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The period also witnessed the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley. Subsequently, Farooq Abdullah resigned in protest after Jagmohan was appointed the governor, and the state's assembly was dismissed.[5] He subsequently moved to the United Kingdom.[6]
After returning to India, and winning the Legislative Assembly elections in 1996, Abdullah was once again sworn in as chief minister of the state, his fifth time. His government lasted for a full six-year term. In 1999, the National Conference joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led National Democratic Alliance, and his son Omar Abdullah was subsequently appointed a union minister of state for External Affairs.
In the 2002 Legislative Assembly elections, Omar Abdullah was chosen to lead the National Conference, while Farooq Abdullah intended to continue his political career at the Central level. The National Conference lost the election and a coalition government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took office. On that year Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 promised to make Abdullah the vice-president, but later reneged on his promise because of Abdul Kalam's nomination to President and Krishan Kant's disagree.[7]
Farooq Abdullah was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 from Jammu and Kashmir and re-elected in 2009. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha in May 2009 and won a seat in the Lok Sabha from Srinagar.[8] Abdullah joined the United Progressive Alliance government as a Cabinet Minister of New and Renewable Energy.
Abdullah contested the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat again in the 2014 General Election, but was defeated by the People's Democratic Party candidate Tariq Hameed Karra. In 2017, Tariq Hameed Karra resigned from the position, leading to a by-election for the Srinagar parliamentary seat. Abdullah got 48,555 votes and defeated PDP candidate Nazir Ahmed Khan by 10,700 votes.[9]
On 16 September 2019, Abdullah became the first mainstream politician to be detained under the Public Safety Act. Prior to this, Abdullah was under house arrest since the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution of India.[10] He was released from house detention under the PSA after seven and a half months on 13 March 2020.[11]
In 2022, before the election of the President of India, Mamata Bannerjee along with several other opposition leaders had proposed Abdullah's name as the Opposition's candidate. But Abdullah declined the offer stating that he wanted to remain in active politics for more years and concentrated on the Kashmir Union Territory issue.[12]
After his son Omar Abdullah, Farooq Abdullah made his presence in the Supreme court of India in relation to Article 370 hearing.
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