Both candidates have shifted from their traditional constituencies - Sadhotra from Marh and Sharma from Akhnoor - after these two segments were reserved for Scheduled Castes.
Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir urged the Centre to strengthen the ongoing peace process through internal and external dialogue at an all-party meeting held in Srinagar on Monday.
'If the National Conference and PDP make handsome electoral gains in the valley and call for the restoration of the former state's lost status, how will the rulers in Delhi respond?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
The road ahead will be long and winding and much resistance can be expected from the high-flying 'hawks' in our skies. But that should not deter the policymakers from planning a road map with the 'big picture' in mind, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
With 19 border polling stations along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch, a contingency plan has been worked out to deal with cross-border shelling though chances are negligible given the ongoing ceasefire between India and Pakistan that came into effect in February 2021, officials said.
Pakistan army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa had said last month that a peaceful resolution of disputes, including Kashmir, would be possible through talks between the two countries.
The commanders will also deliberate on a slew of long-pending reform measures like cutting down on ceremonial practices and non-military activities to ensure a rational distribution of resources, they said.
The conference was attended by envoys of Pakistan posted at Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, Afghanistan, UN New York, UN Geneva, Vienna, Brussels and Moscow among others.
Mirwaiz also alleged that 'human rights violations by security forces' are continuing in Jammu and Kashmir and there is an urgent need to put an end to them.
Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has accorded sanction for the prosecution of author Arundhati Roy and a former Kashmiri professor in a 2010 case related to alleged provocative speeches, Raj Niwas officials said on Tuesday.
India maintains that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role in it.
Dr Rama Singh and six academics from McMaster University's Center for Peace Studies in Canada were in Jammu and Kashmir recently for a conference on peace and democracy.
In his first public appearance following his release from four-year house arrest on Friday, Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq reiterated the stand of his separatist amalgam that the issue of Jammu and Kashmir has to be resolved through dialogue and peaceful means.
Earlier on his arrival on Tuesday, Shankar went to the Shariqa Devi temple in downtown Srinagar and also paid homage at the adjacent Sheikh Hamza Mukhdoom's shrine.
Pakistan's deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who is in China on a four-day visit, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi co-chaired the fifth round of the foreign minister-level China-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue.
'The sooner Pakistan and India face these geopolitical realities, the better it will be for their own security and prosperity,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Guterres said in Islamabad that he was concerned over the situation in Kashmir, and that he was ready to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve the long pending issue.
Moderate Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on Monday joined his hardline rival Syed Ali Shah Geelani to oppose the concert being organised by the German Embassy next month in Srinagar.
Speaking in the National Assembly during a debate on the Line of Control situation, Aziz said Pakistan is fully capable to defend its border and will not accept any "Indian influence or hegemony" under any circumstances.
India has said that the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment free of terror and hostility.
Schools in the Valley will reopen next week, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam said.
The battle to manage the international environment over Kashmir has just begun, but what is expected to help is the lifting of internal controls. All eyes are now on that exercise. Aditi Phadnis reports.
Exploiting the killings to ratchet up the tension in the region and harden negotiating positions with the central government serves nobody, least of all the people of Nagaland. The peace process must not be stalled because of this incident or distracted by calls to repeal the AFSPA, argues Vivek Gumaste.
Trump, addressing reporters at the UN on Wednesday, said he has had "very productive conversations" with leaders of India and Pakistan on the margins of the UN General Assembly. "With respect to Pakistan and India, we talked about Kashmir. Whatever help I can be, I said, I offered, whether it's arbitration or mediation or whatever it has to be."
SAS Geelani said he would support a dialogue process aimed at resolving Kashmir issue.
The French president said that peace should be maintained in the region and peoples' rights should be protected.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday asked the Army to maintain strong vigil along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China as the situation in the northern sector remained "tense" in view of deployment of PLA troops.
Kashmiris hope that India and Pakistan can find a lasting solution to what many call the Kashmir 'problem'.
Sending a strong message to Pakistan, Rajnath also said the neighbouring country should change its attitude and approach towards Kashmir.
'It will be foolhardy to overlook that this stunning shift in China's stance comes as the culmination of the severely damaged India-China relationship under the present government,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Soulful strains of some of the most popular and best known western classical music compositions reverberated in the majestic backdrop of Zabarwan Hills when Zubin Mehta, world famous conductor, performed before a mesmerised audience in the Shalimar Gardens on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar on Saturday evening.
'If Modi had followed Vajpayee in Kashmir, then there would have been absolutely no problem in Kashmir.'
'It is time to not merely assert that Kashmir is an internal problem, but begin to act on it,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Kashmir remained on the edge with six more persons, including a cop getting killed in violence on Sunday.
'Pakistan had almost disappeared from Kashmir.' 'Now in the last three, four years we have brought Pakistan back again by not handling Kashmir properly.'
Delegates of all G20 countries, barring China, arrived in Srinagar on Monday for the third working group meeting on tourism -- a much-anticipated event for which authorities have made extensive security arrangements and spruced up the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Talks are the only option," Mehbooba said. "How long can you have a confrontation?"
Sharma will decide whom he wants to hold talks with, Singh said when asked whether he would have dialogue with the Hurriyat Conference.
Pakistan-India bilateral relations remained frozen for the fourth year over the vexed Kashmir issue but analysts hope the strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes the prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February in the absence of his main challenger Imran Khan who is in jail in multiple cases.
People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) leaders, including three former chief ministers, were put under house arrest on Saturday before a protest against the proposals of Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission, prompting angry reactions from political parties which said such steps will only 'incentivise and facilitate' violent agitations.
