New Delhi: A formal invite for a high-level meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been sent to 14 political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including four former chief ministers. The meeting will be held on June 24 and is expected to set the road map for holding assembly elections there. Among those invited are four former chief ministers — Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
The meeting is a result of back-channel talks that were being held with all the political parties from the union territory to decide on the next course of action, including holding assembly elections as well as restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Notably, this will be the prime minister’s first interaction with all the political parties of Jammu and Kashmir since August 5, 2019, when the Centre abrogated special the state’s status and bifurcated it into union territories. The erstwhile state has been under the Centre’s rule since November 2018.
These leaders of eight political parties — the National Conference (NC), PDP, BJP, Congress, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, CPI(M), People’s Conference, and the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party — were telephonically invited by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla for participation in the meeting to be held at the prime minister’s residence at 3 PM on Thursday.
Officials told PTI said the Centre is keen on holding assembly elections in the union territory as early as possible, likely to be held either in December or March next year after the Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Desai completes its task of redrawing constituencies in the next few months. The Commission was granted one year’s extension in March this year.
All the leaders have been asked to come along with a COVID-19 negative certificate, the officials said.
When contacted by PTI, Omar Abdullah confirmed having received the invite and said that he would go by the directions of his party.
Sources in the NC said that the senior Abdullah will be consulting party leaders about participation in the meeting.
The PDP chief, when contacted, said that she would be holding an inner-party discussion on Sunday to decide the future course of action.
Four former deputy chief ministers of the erstwhile state — Congress leader Tara Chand, People’s Conference leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, and BJP leaders Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta — too have been invited to the meet.
In addition, CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) chief Altaf Bukhari, Sajjad Lone of the People’s Conference, J-K Congress head G A Mir, BJP’s Ravidner Raina, and Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh have been invited to the meeting.
The Congress and the CPI(M) too have said they will take a call on attending the meeting after deliberations within their respective parties.
The meeting convened by the prime minister is in accordance with the wishes of heads of various political parties who have been seeking time from him and demanding such a meeting for a long time, he added.
The meeting — the first such exercise since the Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019 — is likely to be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders.
The Union Home Minister, while tabling the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill 2019 in Parliament, gave an assurance that the Centre would grant full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.
The talks come seven months after the District Development Council elections in the Union Territory.
(With PTI inputs)