Omar Abdullah (Urdu: عمر عبدالله), born 10 March 1970, is a member of 14th Lok Sabha. He represents Srinagar constituency of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
He was a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government. He is the son of Farooq Abdullah and grandson of Sheikh Abdullah. He is an alumnus of the Burn Hall School Srinagar, Lawrence School, Sanawar and University of Mumbai.
In 1998, Omar Abdullah was elected to 12th Lok Sabha. In 1998-99, he was Member, Committee on Transport and Tourism and Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Tourism. He was the youngest Minister at the age of 29. In 1999, he was re-elected to 13th Lok Sabha (2nd term). On October 13, 1999 he took oath as Union Minister of State, Commerce and Industry. On July 22, 2001, he was made Union Minister of State, External Affairs.
Later, he moved away from the Centre with an eye on Jammu and Kashmir political mantle. He probably will be the third generation chief minister from the Sheikh lineage. Many see his take over of the NC party leadership as a non-democratic carry-over of an autocratic system, which his grandfather, Sheikh Abdullah, rebelled against in the first place.
Farooq Abdullah’s strategy to abstain on voting in the House on the Gujarat issue, and Omar Abdullah’s giving in his resignation were seen all seen as moves by the father-son duo to establish Omar Abdullah in the Valley. However, because he was away from Kashmir since childhood, many regard him as "privilged" by birth with little or no idea about what it is like to be a common Kashmiri; hence his difficulty in relating to ordinary Kashmiris. In spite of this Omar was re-elected to the Lok Sabha for the third time in a row from Srinagar and he continues to represent that constituency.
He was re-elected as President of National Conference for a second term in 2006.
In March 2006, much to the disapproval of the centre, Omar Abdullah had a one-on-one meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharaf in Islamabad. This was the first meeting of its kind between a main-stream politician from Kashmir and the Pakistani government thereby re-enforcing Omar's growing commitment to the solution of the Kashmir cause - no matter what the stakes might be; Omar received a rousing reception by thousands of Kashmiris upon his return from there.
Lately, there has been a lot of speculation that because of Mr. Omar Abdullah's fair-handling of party matters in general and his sincere attitude toward members of the party in particular, a lot of former senior members who quit the party few years ago complaining that their grievances were not heard might be re-joining NC. This would further strengthen Mr. Omar Abdullah's standing within NC as a unifier and a true leader. It is widely speculated that Mr. Sadiq Ali will be rejoining NC, and that Mr. Omar Abdullah will be announcing his comeback very soon. Mr. Sadiq Ali was the most senior member to quit in the rebellion, and his comeback would seal the fate of the opposition in the next elections.
On July 9, 2007, Omar escaped a bid on his life when suspected militants threw two rifle grenades targeted at him. The incident happened when Omar was interacting with party workers at a party leaders house.
