Centre invites Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, other J&K leaders for meeting with PM Modi

The Centre on Saturday extended an invitation to National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and other top political leaders of Jammu & Kashmir for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24.

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla today invited all 14 political leaders of the erstwhile state for the meeting and asked them to present a Covid-19 negative report, officials confirmed. The meeting will take place at New Delhi. The agenda ahead includes completion of the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir and holding of elections for formation of new government. LG Manoj Sinha is also likely to be part of the deliberations.

Four former deputy chief ministers of the erstwhile state -- Congress leader Tara Chand, People's Conference leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig, and BJP leaders Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta -- too have been invited to the meet.


In addition, CPI(M) leader Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) chief Altaf Bukhari, Sajjad Lone of the People's Conference, J-K Congress head G A Mir, BJP's Ravidner Raina, and Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh have been invited to the meeting.

The meeting -- the first such exercise since the Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019 -- is likely to be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other central leaders.