Entry into politics At that time his father
Sheikh Abdullah was serving as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq Abdullah was elected to the Lok Sabha unopposed as a founding party member of the
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference from
Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency in the
1980 General Election.
Chief Minister, 1982–1984 Abdullah was a novice in the political arena of Jammu and Kashmir when he was appointed president of the
National Conference in August 1981. His main qualification was that he was the son of Sheikh Abdullah. After his father's death in 1982, Farooq Abdullah became the chief minister of the state. In 1984, a faction of the National conference led by his brother-in-law
Ghulam Mohammad Shah broke away, leading to the collapse of his government and his dismissal. Shah subsequently became the Chief Minister with the support of the Congress.
1984–1996 In 1986, G.M. Shah's government was dismissed after the communal
1986 Kashmir riots in South Kashmir, and a new National Conference–Congress government was sworn in with Abdullah as the chief minister, after the
Rajiv-Farooq accord. A
new election was held in 1987 and the National Conference–Congress alliance won the election amid allegations of fraud and widespread election rigging by the National Conference. This period saw a rise in militancy in the state, with the return of trained militants in J&K and incidents that included the
kidnapping of the daughter of the Home Minister
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The period also witnessed the
exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the
Kashmir Valley. Subsequently, Farooq Abdullah resigned in protest after
Jagmohan was appointed the governor, and the state's assembly was dismissed. He subsequently moved to the
United Kingdom.
Chief Minister, 1996–2002 After returning to India, and winning the
Legislative Assembly elections in 1996, Abdullah was once again sworn in as chief minister of the state, his fifth time. His government lasted for a full six-year term. In 1999, the National Conference joined the
Atal Bihari Vajpayee led
National Democratic Alliance, and his son Omar Abdullah was subsequently appointed a union minister of state for
External Affairs.
Subsequent political career In the 2002
Legislative Assembly elections, Omar Abdullah was chosen to lead the National Conference, while Farooq Abdullah intended to continue his political career at the Central level. The National Conference lost the election and a coalition government headed by
Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took office. On that year Former Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee in
2002 promised to make Abdullah the vice-president, but later reneged on his promise because of Abdul Kalam's nomination to president and Krishan Kant's disagree. Farooq Abdullah was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 from Jammu and Kashmir and re-elected in 2009. He resigned from the Rajya Sabha in May 2009 and won a seat in the Lok Sabha from
Srinagar. Abdullah joined the
United Progressive Alliance government as a
Cabinet Minister of New and Renewable Energy. in 2013 in New Delhi. during his oath taking ceremony in
Ulaanbaatar in 2013. Abdullah contested the
Srinagar Lok Sabha seat again in the
2014 General Election, but was defeated by the People's Democratic Party candidate
Tariq Hameed Karra. In 2017, Tariq Hameed Karra resigned from the position, leading to a
by-election for the Srinagar parliamentary seat. Abdullah got 48,555 votes and defeated PDP candidate Nazir Ahmed Khan by 10,700 votes. On 16 September 2019, Abdullah became the first mainstream politician to be detained under the
Public Safety Act. Prior to this, Abdullah was under house arrest since the scrapping of
Article 370 of the Constitution of India. He was released from house detention under the PSA after seven and a half months on 13 March 2020. In 2022, before the election of the President of India, Mamata Bannerjee along with several other opposition leaders had proposed Abdullah's name as the Opposition's candidate. But Abdullah declined the offer stating that he wanted to remain in active politics for more years and concentrated on the Kashmir Union Territory issue. == Assassination attempt ==