Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who was freed after nearly eight months of house arrest, wrote a stirring piece following the abrogation of Article 370 in the English newspaper The Indian Express. He wrote “As for me, I am very clear that while J&K remains a Union Territory I will not be contesting any Assembly elections. Having been a member of the most empowered Assembly in the land and that, too, as the leader of that Assembly for six years, I simply cannot and will not be a member of a House that has been disempowered the way ours has"