Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday ruled out post-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party given its stand on issues like Article 370, Uniform Civil Code and Babri Masjid as also with any other party.
'Both my father and brother are very strong. Their spirit is unbroken,' says Dr Farooq Abdullah's daughter and Omar's sister, Safiya Abdullah Khan.
Mantoo said the decision to meet the Abdullahs was taken at an emergent meeting of senior functionaries and district presidents of the Jammu Province two days ago, soon after restrictions on the movement of Jammu-based National Conference leaders were lifted.
Gupkar Alliance, which includes mainstream political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, has accepted the invitation of the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24.
Arvind Kejriwal warned the media that "very big forces" would try and break the INDIA alliance by showing that there was a lot of acrimony among them.
'We have been cheated. We are trying to bring Article 370 back'
Saddam, a businessman, is the eldest among the two siblings. He has studied in England. Sofiya Nabi Azad, his sister, has studied journalism.
Seventeen former leaders of the Democratic Azad Party (DAP), including ex-deputy chief minister Tara Chand and ex-Pradesh Congress Committee chief Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed, on Friday returned to the Congress fold and were welcomed back by the party which said they were on a 'leave of two months'.
The alliance adopted a resolution to this effect and said its theme for the elections will be "Judega Bharat, Jeetega India, (India will unite, India will win)".
Briefing reporters after the nearly two-hour meeting, Abdullah said the leaders decided to formalise the alliance, that has been named 'Peoples' Alliance for Gupkar Declaration'.
Terrorists on Saturday shot dead a policeman in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said, evoking condemnations from mainstream political parties in the Valley.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti Friday sent a legal notice to former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik seeking Rs 10 crore compensation for his alleged "defamatory" remarks against her.
Most leaders agreed for early finalisation of poll plans for 2024 stressing that there was no time left with them and mere meetings would not help.
Since Sunday, a total of eight leaders have been released from preventive custody.
The National Conference suffered a major setback in Jammu as two prominent leaders Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia resigned from the party on Sunday.
'There is no point in just saying, 'hum wapas bhej denge (we will send Kashmiri Pandits back)'.'
Nearly two years after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two UTs and revocation of its special status, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held talks with top political leaders from the erstwhile state, and said the Centre's priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy there for which delimitation has to happen quickly so that polls can be held.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) held talks in an informal setting in Mumbai on Thursday evening to chart out a concrete roadmap and evolve a structure for cooperation among the alliance partners to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday undertook a train journey through the 11-km long tunnel under the Pir Panjal mountain ranges along with school children most of whom travelled by rail for the first time.
Who will win in the end? The Dashing Pilot or the elderly warhorse?
The victim was identified as Sanjay Sharma, a resident of the Achan area in the south Kashmir district, they said, adding that the incident took place at around 11 am.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has demanded the resignations of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father, union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Union Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday ruled out any problems with ally Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday the dialogue process initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Jammu and Kashmir's mainstream leadership can gain credibility by ending what she called an 'era of oppression and suppression' in the union territory and understanding that a dissenting voice is not a criminal act.
Mufti was among hundreds of people who were taken into preventive custody hours ahead of the Centre revoking special status of the Jammu and Kashmir and breaking the state into two union territories on August 5 last year.
The Thursday's meeting will be the first between the Centre and mainstream Jammu and Kashmir politicians after the abrogation of Article 370 and the divisions of the erstwhile state into two union territories in 2019.
'This move rendered the chiefs of important investigative agencies to the status of daily wage earners. It undermined the autonomy and independence of the agencies.'
The visit by the MPs comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24.
'My request to Amit Shah would be "Please do not use archaic laws and muscle power against voices that have always stood by India.".'
All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of outsourcing the handling of the state to security agencies and is treating it as law and order situation than a political one.
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.
A day after the all-party meeting discussed Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress's Core Group deliberated the strategy for the troubled state and a blueprint for the road ahead.
The last rites will be held at the Lodhi Road crematorium in New Delhi on Friday.
The leaders from Jammu and Kashmir's political parties were placed under detention following the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre on August 5.
Security deployment remained in vulnerable areas and mobile and internet services were yet to be restored in most parts of the Valley 48 days after the Centre abrogated Article 370 provisions of the Constitution.
Restrictions under Section 144 CrPc have been imposed in few areas of the valley to maintain law and order, the officials said.
'We repent our decision today as we feel we betrayed our (Congress) party, while the DAP betrayed us'
Leaders from Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday said after attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi's all-party meeting that they will 'continue to struggle' against the abrogation of Article 370 and urged the PM to restore the statehood of J-K at the earliest.
They said preliminary investigation revealed that terrorists hurled a grenade at a naka (patrol) party near Nishat Park in the district in north Kashmir, causing splinter injuries to five security forces personnel.
The youth leadership taking the reigns of the states was a rare event in the last century as very few broke the glass ceilings.
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