The first ever such meeting after abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two UTs is likely to discuss holding of assembly elections
Jammu: To bolster political process political process in Jammu and Kashmir after the successful District Development Council elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called an all party meeting of mainstream politicians from the Union Territory on June 24.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and BJP’s UT president Ravinder Raina on Saturday confirmed having received the invitation for the meeting which is likely to be attended be several Central leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah. Mehbooba Mufti has convened a meeting of party leaders on Sunday to discuss the issue and take a decision about participation in the meeting.
According to well placed sources, the meeting is likely to discuss holding of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. With process of delimitation of assembly constituencies already set into motion, Centre by inviting leaders of all the political parties wants to evolve a general consensus about the holding of assembly elections.
This is the first such meeting since the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019. And ahead of it, the UT
The political parties have said in the recent past that they are willing to discuss the process of redrawing constituencies in the Union Territory and also regarding the revocation of the erstwhile state’s special status.
Sources said that Centre has invited National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, Jammu Kashmir Apni Party leader Altaf Bukhari and People’s Conference chief Sajjad Lone also to the meeting, apart from BJP and Congress leaders from the UT.
Barring Bukhari, other leaders have served a spell of detention after the Centre’s decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the erstwhile state into union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
Significantly, ahead of this first such meeting since the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019, the government on Sunday released senior PDP leader Sartaj Madni, who also happens to be an uncle of former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, from six month long detention.
The political parties have said in the recent past that they are willing to discuss the process of redrawing constituencies in the Union Territory and also regarding the revocation of the erstwhile state’s special status.