Omar Abdullah

Omar Abdullah
उमर अब्दुल्ला عمر عبداللہ
Abdullah in 2025
10th Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 October 2024
Lieutenant Governor	Manoj Sinha
Deputy	Surinder Kumar Choudhary
Preceded by	President's rule
In office 5 January 2009 – 8 January 2015
Governor	Narinder Nath Vohra
Deputy	Tara Chand
Preceded by	Governor's rule
Succeeded by	Governor's rule
Personal details
Born	(1970-03-10) 10 March 1970 Rochford, Essex, England
Political party	Jammu & Kashmir National Conference
Spouse(s)	Payal Nath ​ ​ (m. 1994; sep. 2011)​
Children	2
Parents	Farooq Abdullah (father) Mollie Abdullah (mother)
Residence	40, Gupkar Road, Srinagar
Alma mater	Burn Hall School Sydenham College (B.Com)
Occupation	Politician

Omar Abdullah (born 10 March 1970) is an Indian politician and the current chief minister of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He previously served as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 2009 to 2014. Since 2009, he has been the vice president of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference and was also its president in the past. Abdullah was a member of parliament in the Lok Sabha from 1998 to 2009, representing Srinagar, and also worked as a union minister of State for External Affairs.

Omar Abdullah, son of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, entered politics in 1998 when he was elected as the youngest member of the Lok Sabha. He repeated this achievement in the next three elections. He served as the union Minister of State for External Affairs in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA government from 23 July 2001 to 23 December 2002. In October 2002, he resigned from the NDA government to focus on party work and became more involved in state politics. However, his party lost in the 2002 state elections. Later, in the 2008 state elections, he and his party secured victory.

He became the youngest and 11th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after forming a government with the Indian National Congress on 5 January 2009. He stayed in that role until 2015 but lost in the 2014 state elections. Before Jammu and Kashmir became a union territory, he was the last leader of opposition in the state's Legislative Assembly, serving as an MLA from Beerwah constituency. The assembly was dissolved in 2018, and on 6 August 2019, the state officially became a union territory after Article 370 was revoked—a move Abdullah strongly opposed.

After being arrested and kept in custody in 2020, Abdullah came back to politics. He first tried to win a seat in the 2024 Indian general election but lost. At first, he did not want to run for a seat, but later, in the 2024 union territory elections, he was elected as an MLA. He became the first chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, working with the INDIA bloc. He started his role in October 2024.