Jammu:
Cracks are widening within the National Conference as internal dissent has turned into an open confrontation between the party leadership and its sitting Member of Parliament, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi.
Terming the development as an extension of Delhi’s plot to split the National Conference, senior party leader and legislator from Banihal, Sajad Shaheen, said similar attempts were made in 1984 as well, but failed to succeed.
The NC leader’s charge of Delhi being behind the Aga Ruhullah’s rebellion comes a month after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had accused the BJP of attempting to poach party legislators to break the NC.
Abdullah had alleged that the BJP offered Rs 20-30 crore to one of its MLAs from the Jammu region.
“Ruhullah is being shown green pastures to backstab the party that made him,” Shaheen alleged.
National Conference MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Friday announced that he will resign from both the party and the Lok Sabha in November, citing differences with the party’s stance on Jammu and Kashmir’s political future. The rebel MP argued that the NC’s acceptance of statehood as the political horizon was no different from the BJP’s position, adding that this legitimised the constitutional changes of August 2019.
Rest assured, the resignation will come. It would have come even without you asking but before that must come accountability.
I have written a letter to my party President, Janab Dr. Farooq Abdullah in response to his public demand for my resignation. Awaiting his response to… pic.twitter.com/R9V1DUFUL9
— Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi (@RuhullahMehdi) August 28, 2026
Mehdi said the party had promised restoration of Articles 370 and 35A in its 2024 manifesto despite knowing the BJP was in power, questioning whether those promises were ever intended to be fulfilled.
Dismissing Ruhullah’s independent political stature, Shaheen said, “He is a big zero without NC. It was NC that made him an MP.”
“Mujhse likh kar le lo. Bina NC Conferenece ke support ke Aga Rhullah election nehi Jeet sakta. Iski zamant zabat ho jayegi (Take it from me in writing. Aga Ruhullah cannot win an election without the support of the National Conference. His security deposit will be forfeited,” Shaheen added.
Questioning the November 3 deadline, Shaheen added, “Why does Aga want to buy time? If he has the guts, he should resign today.”
Mocking speculation that Ruhullah could engineer a Maharashtra-like split, Shaheen said, “Aga can never become Eknath Shinde of NC. He is not Eknath, he is Aiknath – meaning alone. No one will join him. He will remain isolated and will vanish from the political scene.”
