Will Omar Abdullah be J&K's next CM? Farooq Abdullah reveals

Farooq Abdullah declared Omar Abdullah as the next Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, citing the NC and Congress's likely victory in the 2024 elections as a rejection of the 2019 Article 370 abrogation. This statement follows Omar Abdullah's significant win in the Budgam assembly seat.

Farooq Abdullah said his son Omar will be the next chief minister of the union territory as the National Conference (NC) and Congress combination edged closer to securing a resounding majority in the 2024 Jammu and Kashmir election.

Addressing the media in Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah said, “People have given their mandate, they have proven that they don’t accept the decision that was taken on August 5, 2019 (Article 370 abrogation) Omar Abdullah will be the chief minister.”

Omar Abdullah contested on two seats - Budgam and Ganderbal. While Omar has won the Budgam seat by a margin of 18,485 votes, he is leading in Ganderbal by a margin of 9,766 votes after 15 rounds of counting.

After the early trends showed the National Conference-Congress alliance in the lead, Omar Abdullah mocked the exit polls, which had predicted a hung assembly in the Union Territory.

"If you pay for exit polls or waste time discussing them, you deserve all the jokes/memes/ridicule. There was a reason I called them a waste of time a few days ago," Omar Abdullah tweeted.