“Missing Chief Minister”: BJP circulates posters asking whereabouts of Omar Abdullah

Rashmi Pandey — Fri, 22 May 2026 17:30:10 +0000

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit on Thursday launched an online and WhatsApp poster campaign labeling Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as “missing”, prompting a sharp reaction from the National Conference leadership and setting off a fresh political row in the Union Territory. BJP spokesperson Ajay Jasrotia told reporters the chief minister “has not been seen for 11 days” and pointed to reports that Omar Abdullah is in the United Kingdom on a private visit, adding that the NC had not clarified his whereabouts. The posters circulated via official BJP social accounts and local WhatsApp groups urged anyone with information to contact the party and described the chief minister as absent from public life over the past 10–11 days.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah dismissed the BJP campaign as a publicity stunt and said his party would not dignify the posters with a formal reply, while taking a dig at the saffron party for what he called a lack of substantive work in Jammu and Kashmir. Farooq told reporters the NC would not respond to such “childish” campaigns and reiterated confidence in the party’s position in the region, according to his public remarks carried by regional outlets and television channels.

Regional news reports said Omar Abdullah was last publicly seen on May 11, when he attended an official event in Ganderbal to lay the foundation for restoration work at a Mughal-era site, after which local media and BJP accounts flagged his absence from official engagements and public meetings. Multiple Jammu and Kashmir news outlets that carried the story on May 21–22 reported that the BJP’s objective was to question the chief minister’s availability during an ongoing political moment in the UT, while NC sources described the move as political mudslinging.

The incident adds to an increasingly bitter political climate in Jammu and Kashmir, where opposition parties and the BJP frequently trade barbs over governance and public outreach; the poster campaign has drawn attention on social media and in local press on May 21–22, 2026. Both parties so far have limited their exchanges to public statements and social-media posts, with no official legal complaint reported as of May 22, 2026.

National Conference | Business Upturn

“Missing Chief Minister”: BJP circulates posters asking whereabouts of Omar Abdullah