Mehbooba Mufti said she will not contest the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, pointing out that she would not be able to fulfil her party's agenda in the union territory set up even if she were to become the chief minister.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday chose party leader Surender Choudhary from Nowshera in Jammu as his deputy, saying he did so to give a voice to people of the region and make his government inclusive.
The Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Friday passed a bill banning inter-district recruitment in the state.
Opposition National Conference on Wednesday accused the state government of discriminating against the Kashmir Valley over the distribution of power sector funds as they disrupted the proceedings of the Assembly, forcing the Speaker to marshal them out and adjourn the House for 10 minutes.
'The Congress cannot speak the BJP's words while targeting Kejriwal.' 'What is the difference between the two? Where is the unity of INDIA then?'
Jammu and Kashmir has been without an assembly since November 2018 when the then legislative assembly was dissolved by then Governor Satya Pal Malik after the People's Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government fell apart earlier that year.
In the Congress's Central Election Committee (CEC) held to discuss ticket allocation for the forthcoming Haryana assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi discussed about the possibilities of contesting elections as INDIA bloc, said sources.
Besides the bills, the government has listed the first batch of supplementary demands for grants for 2023-24 for presentation, discussion and voting during the session.
The ministry said the high powered committee for Ladakh headed by Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai has been working actively with representatives of the ABL and the KDA and significant progress has been made.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud considered the pleas in chambers and dismissed applications for listing of the review petition in open Court.
'...only if we sort it out with Pakistan.'
The Congress on Tuesday said it cannot accept the Haryana assembly polls verdict as there were 'serious issues' about the integrity of the counting process and functioning of the EVMs in some districts, and asserted that it would take up the matter with the Election Commission.
Even as parleys continue in both states, the grand old party is expected to contest less than 110 seats in the November 20 polls for the 288-member Maharashtra assembly.
A Bharatiya Janata Party MLA was on Thursday wounded as the in-session Jammu and Kashmir assembly witnessed pandemonium over the speech of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the House on Wednesday.
"This fight is against the hatred that the BJP and RSS are spreading throughout the country. They have tried to create conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, and Hindus and Christians just to hold onto power. But they are failing and their strategy is not working," he said.
Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday, with the opposition terming the move 'dictatorial' and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asserting that the legislation would not tamper with the powers enjoyed by states.
The Congress has tried to inflict capital punishment on true secularism, he claimed, asserting that the Waqf law has no place in the Constitution.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will not be restored even if Congress stalwart and late PM Indira Gandhi comes down from heaven.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah Tuesday asserted that there should be no "fiddling" with the mandate of people in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Centre and the Raj Bhavan must not indulge in any "machinations".
The voluminous report has proposed redrawing of the Anantnag Parliamentary seat by including Rajouri and Poonch from the Jammu region, besides carrying out massive changes in the Kashmir division, they said.
The PM said the Congress and its allies should not encourage the "Pakistan agenda" and speak the language of separatists.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar during the first day of review of poll preparedness of the state asked the district election officers and municipal commissioners to explain the steps taken by them to deal with 'urban apathy'.
Responding to a question, Abdullah said elections can be held whenever the government wants.
The trader not only predicted a Trump win but also wagered on Trump's success in both the popular vote and several key swing states.
Pandemonium broke out in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Monday over the Shopian case with opposition People's Democratic Party members trooping into the well of the House and trying to snatch the Speaker's microphone. Led by their leader Mehbooba Mufti, the 21-member PDP group raised slogans like "Shopian kay katiloon ko pesh karo". As Mehbooba tried to snatch the mike of the Speaker, Lone directed the watch and ward staff to remove the agitating PDP members from the House
The leaders said the list of seats each party will be contesting, as well as the names of the candidates, will be issued later.
The Haryana victory will be a morale booster for the Bharatiya Janata Party and increase its bargaining power in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, according to political analysts.
Asked if the party would approach the court for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, the NC leader said, "I do not want to get into that right now."
In the present case, the legislative assembly of Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be constituted after the erstwhile state was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in 2019.
Striking an emotional chord with the people of Jammu and Kashmir, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Thursday said he considers himself their soldier in New Delhi, and added his doors are always open for party workers -- 'the lions of the Congress'.
Releasing the party manifesto, which talks of resolution of Kashmir issue on the lines of its "self-rule" formula, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti made it clear that her party was jumping into the poll bandwagon, but wished that the Centre should have initiated a "serious dialogue" with all sections in the Kashmir Valley before holding elections.
'My mother feels it will be tough and emotional for her to enter an assembly which has essentially been reduced to a municipality now.' 'My opinion is that even if it is a municipality one cannot cede that space to the BJP.'
Gandhi also said the idea of 'One Nation, One Election' was aimed at distracting from real issues of the people.
India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of the country.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has declared that Chhattisgarh will be free from the menace of Naxalism by March 31, 2026. He stated that the Centre and the state government are committed to eradicating Naxalism, highlighting the significant achievements of the Chhattisgarh police in the last year. Shah also appealed to Naxalites to surrender and join the mainstream, emphasizing the government's rehabilitation policy. He further praised the Chhattisgarh police's efforts in curbing organized crime and narcotics.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Addressing a public event in Kolhapur city on Monday evening, Fadnavis pointed out instances wherein women were tricked into inter-faith marriage and subsequently abandoned after they gave birth to children.
A resolution seeking clemency for Afzal Guru, a death row convict in Parliament attack case, was stalled in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Wednesday after pandemonium broke out leading to adjournment of the House without any business being transacted.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
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