Farooq Abdullah is the leader of the Jammu and Kashmir-based party National Conference and former Union minister and chief minister of the erstwhile state. He served as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on several occasions since 1982 and as the union minister for New and Renewable Energy between 2009 and 2014. He is the son of Sheikh Abdullah, the first Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and father of former CM Omar Abdullah. Born in Srinagar, J&K, on October 21, 1939, he was educated at the Bishop Cotton School in Srinagar and completed his MBBS degree from SMS Medical College, Jaipur. In a political career spanning decades, the first public office he held was as a Member of Parliament from the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in 1980, which he currently also represents. The following year he was appointed president of the National Conference, a position his father and party founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah held before him. After Sheikh Abdullah’s passing in August 1982, Farooq returned to take over as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at the age of 45. This government only lasted two years, following a split in the National Conference. After a brief term as CM in 1986, Abdullah was elected Chief Minister again in the Assembly elections of 1987 and formed a coalition government with the Congress. As the state was enveloped in a phase of violence and an armed militancy gained ground, this was soon followed by over six years of President’s Rule, preceded by six months of Governors’ Rule in the state, even as the Assembly remained dissolved. In the first election held afterwards, in 1996, Farooq received his first six-year term as Chief Minister (as per J&K’s Constitution, no longer operational). Thereafter, his son, Omar, took over the reins of the party. In January 2009, Omar was elected Chief Minister, the only CM after Farooq to get a full term at the helm in J&K as a full state. Farooq once again took over as party president, which he remained until 2022. He also successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from in 1980, 2009, 2017 and 2019 from Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency, before stepping away from the election just before the 2024 General Election citing health reasons.