Farooq Abdullah’s surprise pullout from Rajya Sabha polls triggers speculations

The ruling National Conference (NC) keeping the party chief and political stalwart Dr Farooq Abdullah out of the list of its candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir has come as a big surprise for the people and political observers. This will perhaps be for the first time in the past about half-century that there will be no member of the Abdullah clan in the Parliament.

Dr Abdullah, till the past few days, was the sure shot personality to represent J&K in the Rajya Sabha. His mother, Akbar Jehan Begum, and son Omar Abdullah have also been members of the Parliament at different periods.

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The four Rajya Sabha seats in J&K are lying vacant since February 2021 as no assembly elections were held here till last year when the NC swept the polls.

However, it is learnt that his name did not appear in the list of candidates because of his health concerns. It is being said that Dr Abdullah has withdrawn his candidacy for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections amid health concerns. He was recently discharged from hospital for about a week.

The three candidates named yesterday by the party are Chowdhry Ramzan, Sajad Kitchloo and Shami Oberoi, who are considered as loyalists of chief minister Omar Abdullah.

The party has left the fourth seat for its ally-Congress. This has left the Congress leadership wondering whether they will be allotted one of the two sure winning seats or left to get defeated by the BJP.

The NC is hoping to secure three of the four seats allocated to Jammu and Kashmir. The last date for filing nomination papers is 13 October, with polling scheduled for 24 October.

Despite a strong pro-NC wave in the last assembly elections, both Ramzan and Kitchloo lost elections from Handwara and Kishtwar. Oberio, a trusted supporter of Omar Abdullah, is currently the party’s treasurer.

His father, Dharamvir Singh Oberoi was a right-hand man of Dr Abdullah.
It was believed that the presence of the 88-year-old Dr Abdullah, who is among the tallest leaders of the country, in the Parliament would give leverage to NC at the national level. He has been participating in the meetings of the India bloc across the country.

Abdullah was the chief minister during several periods between 1982 to 2002 and union minister between 2009 and 2014.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 and re-elected in 2009. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha seat in May 2009 and won the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. Abdullah again contested the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in 2014 but was defeated by the PDP candidate Tariq Hameed Karra. In 2017, Karra resigned from the seat and Abdullah again won the seat in the by-election.

By fielding the two-time MLA from Kishtwar, Kitchloo, the NC was aiming to further consolidate its position in the Chenab Valley region of Jammu.

The BJP core group has forwarded to its high command a panel consisting names of four leaders for the Rajya Sabha polls.
The PDP and Peoples Conference that shared power with the BJP from 2014 to 2018 have not yet opened their cards on their support in the RS polls.