After the Jammu and Kashmir's National Conference party faced a major setback in the Budgam bye-elections on Friday, it was only the party's estranged MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi who celebrated his victory over Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Along with the posters of the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Aaga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, who emerged victorious with a margin of 4,478 votes, the loss highlighted Ruhullah's growing influence.
As soon as the National Conference lost, Ruhullah quoted a verse from the Quran. "Arrogance is the recipe for disaster," he wrote in a post on X, hinting that it was Omar Abdullah's arrogance which led to the party's loss. In the past, he has often had differences with the chief minister.
Over the last year, the Lok Sabha MP has fallen out with the party leadership over several issues, including the current reservation policy in Jammu and Kashmir. Consequentially, he did not campaign for the party candidate for the by-election.
Ruhullah has been at loggerheads with the party leadership over the J&K's statehood restoration, accusing them of remaining silent and softening their stand on the reinstatement of Article 370.
Recently, Ruhullah asked the Chief Minister to "resign and apologise to people for his failure to deliver on the promises the party has made in its manifesto."
The estranged MP has been insistent that his criticism of Omar Abdullah was not anti-party and that he's only following NC's ideology and the promises the party has made in the election manifesto.
Hitting back at the Lok Sabha MP after the results, Omar Abdullah termed his absence from the bypoll campaign as "political suicide".
The bypoll in the constituency was necessitated after the Chief Minister vacated the seat following his election from the family bastion of Ganderbal as well in last year's assembly polls.
The NC has also failed to win the Nagrota bypoll. The BJP retained the assembly constituency after its candidate Devyani Rana won with a lead of 24,647 votes, carrying forward the legacy of her late father and senior party leader Devender Singh Rana.
This is the first time that the NC has lost in its bastion of Budgam, in central Kashmir, since 1957, the first elections for the legislative assembly.
The NC has won every assembly election in Budgam whenever it has fielded a candidate from the Shia-dominated segment. The only time the seat was not represented by the NC was in 1972, when the party had boycotted the polls across J&K.
