Clashes broke out between supporters of the ruling National Conference and Opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday during filing of nominations by their candidates at Kulgam district election office in south Kashmir, the police said.
Jairam Ramesh said the Congress has to be the "fulcrum" of any Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections as it is the only political force with a pan-India presence.
The veteran politician, who has been chief minister of the erstwhile state three times as well as union minister, also said the time has come for the opposition parties to come together and fight the forces who are bent on destroying the secular fabric of the country.
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh told PTI that preliminary information from the scene suggests there was a minor altercation among some young boys, and within seconds, there was a stampede situation.
Ahead of the crucial third round of discussions, the opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday exuded confidence that it would provide a formidable alternative to bring political change in the country and asserted that it has several prime ministerial faces against BJP's only one.
Officials said there was no discussion on constituting a delimitation commission.
'If unity is not going to be based on values and principles, how will we achieve it?'
Sources in New Delhi say senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which could signal the launch of formal negotiations between the two political parties
Organisations and individuals that try to create sympathy for terrorists must also be isolated, he said addressing the third 'No Money for Terror Ministerial Conference on Counter-Terrorism Financing' hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Besides Azad, two PDP and one BJP candidate won.
The party terms the move from the Centre as 'positive'.
The political parties including the People's Democratic Party, the National Conference, and the Congress had opposed this order.
One wonders where the inestimable Syed Ali Shah Geelani and his gang of separatist leaders have disappeared.
'The government of India must deliberate, for how long the police personnel will be sacrificed in such a manner. This is a big issue which must be resolved for the sake of the people of Jammu and Kashmir'
The alliance -- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) -- has resolved to save the character of the republic 'being severely assaulted in a systematic manner by the Bharatiya Janata Party' and safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution.
Days after rebuffing outreach attempt by a group of MPs, hardline Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani has said that talks with New Delhi are bound to fail till the "gravity and intensity" of the Kashmir issue is agreed upon.
The Enforcement Directorate questioned former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah for five hours on Thursday in connection with a case related to the purchase of a building by the J&K Bank about 12 years ago when he was in office, officials said in New Delhi.
The party also said it would be a travesty to treat the current unrest in the Valley as a mere law and order problem.
Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is among six personalities chosen for this year's Padma Vibhushan.
The visit by the MPs comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24.
The Congress on Friday called senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation 'unfortunate' and termed the timing 'awful', saying it has come at a time when the party is engaged in combating the Bharatiya Janata Party on various issues.
Snubbed by his party leader Rahul Gandhi and panned by the Bharatiya Janata Party for questioning surgical strikes, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh swung into damage control mode on Tuesday and said his questions were to the government and not the armed forces.
'We are only saying that we will peacefully fight for its restoration. We will fight for it under the ambit of the Constitution, and legally as well'
'Use of the word 'genocide' for Kashmiri Pandits is absolutely wrong.'
Raising slogans against Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and the administration, the demonstrators, mostly government employees posted in the troubled valley and their kin, demanded that they be provided adequate security or be transferred to Jammu. The employees also threatened en masse resignation from their jobs.
More than 100 people have died in rain-hit Jammu and Kashmir, which is witnessing its worst flood in 50 years.
At a time 20-odd opposition parties, many of them regional rivals, joined forces over the Adani issue, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar's open support for industrialist Gautam Adani has put a question mark on the durability of a non-Bharatiya Janata Party block in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
However, the attendance of devotees was thin as the people from adjoining localities only were not able to reach the grand mosque due to non-availability of public transport in view of the strike.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads a faction of the Shiv Sena, on Thursday said his party has immense respect for V D Savarkar and he does not approve of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remarks on the freedom fighter.
Ten people died and 28 more were injured when an overcrowded mini-bus plunged into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Wednesday, officials said in Jammu.
The Congress on Monday said the 150-day Bharat Jodo Yatra from September 7 covering 3,500 km will be the party's biggest ever 'Jan Sampark' programme and Rahul Gandhi will walk 'all the way' from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
'Both the people have a perspective and are people of stature and people of understanding'
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