New Delhi: Three ministers from the Government of India will join the country’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the All Party Meeting (APM) on Jammu and Kashmir to be chaired by him at New Delhi on June 24, reports said quoting official sources.
The report said that National Conference and Congress today continued consultations with their senior party leaders on participation in the meeting while National Panthers Party’s Bhim Singh and People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone announced that they would join the dialogue.
Quoting official sources, a report by Daily Excelsior said that Home Minister of India Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh would also represent the GoI in the meeting to be chaired by the Prime Minister.
Senior Congress leaders including former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Incharge J&K Rajni Patil and PCC (I) chief GA Mir besides several former Ministers and party functionaries from the Union Territory met virtually this morning to discuss the invite for June 24 talks called by the Prime Minister.
The report quoting PCC (I) chief GA Mir, said that there was general demand of the Congress leaders that the talks should be “agenda-oriented” and not without any specific agenda as has been given out to them.
“We don’t know what is the agenda of talks? What issues they are going to discuss. We have demanded that the talks should be agenda-oriented,” Mir was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will chair a meeting of the senior Congress leaders from New Delhi and J&K virtually at 5 pm tomorrow to take call on the All Party Meeting (APM).
As per the report, BJP president Ravinder Raina is meeting senior party leaders in Jammu tomorrow to chalk out a “counter-strategy” against Gupkar Alliance ahead of the All Party Meeting.
Raina along with two senior party leaders — former Deputy Chief Ministers Dr Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta — are taking part in the scheduled meeting which will be the Prime Minister’s first interaction with all the political parties of Jammu and Kashmir since August 5, 2019 when the GoI abrogated the State’s special status and bifurcated it into two UTs.
“We have convened an emergency meeting of all prominent party leaders at Trikuta Nagar party headquarters at 11 am tomorrow (Tuesday) to chalk out the counter-strategy against Gupkar Alliance (People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration PAGD which is meeting in Srinagar around the same time to discuss Centre’s invitation),” Raina was quoted as having said.
National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah continued his consultations with senior party leaders to elicit their view point on participation in June 24 talks.
Tomorrow, Dr Abdullah will meet the NC leaders from Ladakh, mainly Kargil district as the party has no major presence in Leh while the day after he will interact with nine party leaders from Jammu region in Srinagar.
The NC is expected to announce its decision on whether to attend the meeting or not on June 23 after Farooq completes consultations with the senior leaders.
Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) founder Bhim Singh today said he is taking part in the scheduled All-Party Meeting.
Singh chaired a three-and-a-half hours long meeting of senior party leaders from 11 am to discuss the invitation extended by the Centre to him.
As per the report, Singh said: “I am leaving for Delhi on Wednesday after my party leaders from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh unanimously decided that we should accept the invitation and attend the meeting to seek restoration of full Statehood along with other rights as guaranteed by the Constitution which were taken away from us on August 5, 2019.”
He said most of the leaders from different districts of Jammu, Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh attended the meeting through virtual mode and “everyone was of the view that J&K and Ladakh should be united again”.
Peoples Conference chairman Sajjad Gani Lone today also chaired a meeting of the party leaders in the context of the meeting and hoped that this engagement would evolve into something much bigger and facilitate return to democracy and empowerment of the people of JK.
Free Press Kashmir is now on Telegram. Click here to Join.
FPK Android App for 2G. Click here to Download.
