National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Monday said he is disappointed but not disheartened by the Supreme Court verdict upholding the Centre's August 5, 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370, which bestowed special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said it took the BJP decades to abrogate the provisions of Article 370.

"We are also prepared for the long haul," he said in a post on X.

"Disappointed but not disheartened. The struggle will continue," Abdullah, who put out multiple posts, said.

He also referred to a couplet of famous poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz to signify that hope should not be lost.

“Dil na umeed tou nahi, Na kaam hi tou hai, Lambi hai gham ki shaam, Magar shaam hi tou hai (my heart is helpless, but doesn’t mean it is hopeless, the evening of sorrow is long, but it is just an evening),” the NC leader said.

While upholding the government's decision on Article 370, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court also directed that statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir be restored at the earliest and said steps should be taken to conduct elections to the Assembly in the Union Territory by September 30 next year.