J&K's Gupkar alliance and Congress to attend Centre's all-party meeting

Srinagar: The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) and Congress will attend the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday.

The announcement came after PAGD leaders met at alliance chairperson Farooq Abdullah's Gupkar Road residence here on Tuesday to discuss the Centre's invitation to leaders from Jammu and Kashmir.

"We have received the invitation from the prime minister and we are going to attend (the meeting), Abdullah, who was flanked by other leaders of the alliance, told reporters after the meeting.

(PDP chief) Mehbooba ji, me, (CPI-M leader) Tarigami sahab and all those who have been invited from us (the alliance), will go, he said.

Fourteen leaders from Jammu and Kashmir have been invited to the meeting to be chaired by the prime minister to discuss the future course of action for the union territory.

The meeting is the first such exercise since the Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and its bifurcation into union territories on August 5, 2019.

The PAGD chairperson said the alliance was confident that it would be able to put its stand before the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister during the meeting at New Delhi.

When the meeting ends, we will brief you here as well as in Delhi on what we did there, what we said and what was their response, the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president said.

Asked what would be the stand of the alliance, Abdullah said, You all know our stand and there is no need to repeat it.

Whatever our stand was, is still there and will be there, he added.

The PAGD is a six-party alliance of mainstream parties that came into existence after the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.

The Congress too decided to attend the all-party meeting, with its leader G A Mir asserting that the restoration of full statehood of Jammu and Kashmir will be its "priority number one".

The decision to attend the deliberations with the prime minister was taken at a meeting chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, according to the party's Jammu and Kashmir unit spokesperson Ravinder Sharma.

The Congress meeting was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and senior leaders Karan Singh, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rajni Patil, G A Mir and Tariq Hameed Karra, the spokesperson said.