The National Conference on Monday held a virtual meeting of its members to discuss the party’s participation in the meeting called by the Centre on Jammu and Kashmir on June 24.
Party sources said the meeting authorised the leadership to decide whether to attend the meeting. The meeting by the NC happened a day after the PDP held a virtual meet to discuss the party’s participation in the meeting called by the Centre.
Sources said the NC vice president, Omar Abdullah, participated in the meeting from Delhi. Sources said the meeting was informed that the party leadership would be attending the meeting of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the five-party alliance led by Farooq Abdullah that seeks the restoration of Article 370 and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
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The PAGD is meeting on Tuesday morning at Abdullah’s residence to deliberate on the invitation from the Centre to the meeting on J&K. The PAGD spokesman and CPI(M) leader, M.Y. Tarigami, told THE WEEK that all the members of the alliance will be attending the meeting and after due deliberation, a decision would be taken whether to accept the invitation.
The home ministry has invited 14 J&K leaders to the meeting that will be also attended by Home Minister Amit Shah. The meeting is the first major political initiative to kickstart political process in J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
According to sources, there is an opinion among the PAGD members that the alliance should send only its representative to the meeting as the agenda of the meeting is not clear.
There is talk about the meeting being held to discuss delimitation and the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. However, sources said, the main agenda of the meeting is delimitation which has seen little headway due to opposition by the NC whose three MPs are associate members of the delimitation commission along with two BJP MPs.
The NC has challenged the J&K Reorganisation Act under which the delimitation is being held in Jammu and Kashmir. Without delimitation, elections cannot be held in the UT. That makes the J&K meeting in Delhi significant.
