Ruhullah Mehdi resigned from the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and announced his resignation from the Lok Sabha on 3 November, in a move that removes the party’s Srinagar member of Parliament from its ranks. Ruhullah Mehdi made the announcement at a gathering at Behisht-e-Zehra Park in Budgam, on the 26th death anniversary of his father, Aga Syed Mehdi. NDTV reported that the announcement ended a 24 year association with the National Conference and set the stage for a by-election in Srinagar once the Lok Sabha Speaker accepts his resignation.
The resignation was set out in a four page letter to the party leadership. In the letter, He accused the National Conference of turning away from the mandate voters gave it in the 2024 assembly elections. He said the party had promised a struggle for the restoration of rights in Jammu and Kashmir, and had then settled for running the government and for what he called a vague promise of statehood. NDTV reported that he described that shift as a personal betrayal, and as a betrayal of the expectations of people who voted for the party.
Ruhullah Mehdi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Srinagar in June 2024 on a National Conference ticket. He has been one of the party’s most vocal members on reservation policy, the release of political prisoners and the restoration of Article 370. His public disagreements with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and party president Farooq Abdullah had grown through the months before the resignation. Reports of the Budgam gathering said supporters had assembled through the morning for an announcement that Ruhullah Mehdi had trailed in advance.
What Ruhullah Mehdi wrote in his letter
The letter returned to the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A in 2019. Ruhullah Mehdi called that step an assault on the rights of people in Jammu and Kashmir. He wrote that rights make a people, and that without those rights there is only erasure. He also wrote that 2019 had offered an opening to reclaim political space, and that he had joined the National Conference more closely because he believed the party would lead that effort.
That belief, the letter said, was not met. He wrote that he had campaigned vigorously for the National Conference in 2024, and that voters had poured their anger and expectations into the party with a large mandate. He wrote that the party changed course as soon as the election was over. He said the leadership had abdicated the space for a struggle over rights in exchange for government office.
Ruhullah Mehdi and the National Conference rift
The rift had been visible in public for months. He had criticised the National Conference government on reservation rationalisation and on the pace of work on political prisoners. He had also pressed the party to take a clearer position on Article 370. Party leaders, in turn, had responded sharply at times, and the exchange had played out in public statements and on social media.
NDTV reported that sources close to him said he has no immediate plan to join another party. The same report said he intends to build a youth led collective, and that he has made clear he will not work to destabilise the Omar Abdullah government. That distinction matters for the National Conference in Srinagar, where Ruhullah Mehdi has a following among younger voters and among Shia voters in Budgam and central Kashmir.
What happens to the Srinagar seat now
A Lok Sabha seat becomes vacant only when the Speaker accepts a member’s resignation. Reports on 3 November said Ruhullah Mehdi had sent his resignation to Speaker Om Birla, and that acceptance had not been reported by the time those reports were published. Until acceptance, the formal position of the seat remains unchanged, even though the political break is complete.
If the Speaker accepts the resignation, a by-election will be needed in Srinagar. The timing of that poll will be set by the Election Commission, under the rules that govern vacancies in the Lok Sabha. A by-election in Srinagar would test the National Conference in a seat it won in 2024, and it would test whether Ruhullah Mehdi can carry his support into a new political formation.
For now, the immediate effect is inside the National Conference. The party has lost a sitting member of Parliament who campaigned for it in 2024 and who spoke for a section of its voters on rights and reservation. He closed his letter with a pledge to serve his people on principle, and with thanks for the political journey he had shared with the party until now.