Lok Sabha Election 2024: Farooq Abdullah not to contest polls due to health reasons, says Omar Abdullah

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference president Farooq Abdullah

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah will not contest the Lok Sabha polls due to health reasons, the latest high-profile leader to bow out of the national election on grounds of health.

“Farooq Abdullah has sought the permission of Ali Mohammad Sagar and other senior leaders to not contest the Lok Sabha polls on grounds health conditions he will ,” his son and party vice-president Omar Abdullah said during a rally on the outskirts of Srinagar on April 3.

Read: Lok Sabha Election 2024: INDIA bloc over in Jammu and Kashmir?

The party would field the best candidate from the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat to give a voice to people in Parliament.

“These elections are different from the previous ones. For three decades, our polls were affected as people didn’t participate because of boycott calls and fear of guns. Our politics had shrunk in Srinagar as only a few voters would come out,” said Omar, also a former chief minister.

The Srinagar Lok Sabha seat will go to polls on May 13, the first general election after the scrapping of Article 370.

“The people of Srinagar will have to decide whether they want to participate in politics or not. They will have to decide whether they really want to elect their representative or not,” Omar said, adding NC's parliamentary board would decide on the candidates  for Baramulla and Srinagar seats.

Farooq Abdullah, 86, represents Srinagar in the Lok Sabha. In his over 40 year-political career he has served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, as a member of the Rajya Sabha as well as the Lok Sabha. He has been a part of both the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as well as the Congress' UPA bloc.

Read more: 'PDP may be down, but we are not out': Mehbooba Mufti responds to Omar Abdullah on seat-sharing

His National Conference is part of the INDIA bloc, which has over 25 opposition parties that have come together to take on the BJP. He has been calling for the bloc to stay together to defeat the BJP though the members are divided over seats in Jammu and Kashmir.

Farooq Abdullah, a physician by training, joins former Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in opting out of elections on grounds of health and age. The Congress leader, however, has taken the Rajya Sabha route and her term began on April 3.

Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader Sushil Modi said on the X platform that he was diagnosed with cancer six months ago and would not be part of the Lok Sabha elections.