Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has begun a new chapter in his personal life. The 56-year-old leader announced on Saturday that “a new journey began yesterday,” tagging journalist Nidhi Razdan in a post that carried four photographs of the couple. Razdan answered the post with a short, informal message of her own: “It’s done bro.”
The marriage was solemnised under the Special Marriage Act on Friday, with family members from both sides as witnesses. Wedding functions were held in Srinagar and New Delhi. The reports differ on where the legal registration took place, with some placing it in Srinagar and others in the national capital. Omar’s parents, Farooq Abdullah and Mollie, and his three sisters attended, as did Razdan’s parents, veteran journalist M K Razdan and Sarla Razdan. It is the second marriage for 49-year-old Razdan.
The announcement closely follows the end of a long personal and legal chapter. Omar married Payal Abdullah in 1994 and they have two sons, Zahir and Zamir. The couple lived separately from 2009, and Omar publicly announced the separation in 2011. In 2016 a family court dismissed his petition for dissolution, holding that he had failed to establish cruelty, desertion or irretrievable breakdown. He took the matter to the Supreme Court, which in 2024 asked both sides to attend mediation.
On 31 July 2026 the Supreme Court dissolved the marriage by mutual consent under Article 142 of the Constitution, after the two sides said they had settled their disputes and would withdraw the proceedings they had filed against each other. The wedding therefore comes roughly three months after the divorce became final.
Within hours of the announcement, social media questioned whether Razdan had converted to Islam. The marriage was solemnised under the Special Marriage Act, which provides for civil marriage without either partner changing religion, and no conversion was involved.
Razdan is a well-known face of Indian television journalism, and Omar is one of the most prominent political figures in the Union Territory. That is why the news spread quickly. The wedding was a low-key, family-centred affair, and the couple chose to reveal it only after the ceremonies were over, through their own accounts rather than a formal statement.
Neither side has issued a detailed statement beyond the social media posts. Watch for any public reception or event in Srinagar or Delhi, and for how the National Conference and the wider political class respond. The Chief Minister’s engagements this week, including the cabinet expansion and reshuffle he has said will happen soon, will show how quickly he returns to official business.
