Meet the J&K leaders who are meeting the PM | India News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's all-party meeting in New Delhi on June 24, to discuss the future course of action for Jammu and Kashmir has kicked off speculation about the restoration of statehood to the area. The focus is on the handful of leaders from the union territory who have been invited to the meeting.Significantly, this 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 two union territories — J&K and Ladakh — on August 5, 2019. Amid this, there has been renewed interest in the Gupkar Declaration. TOI Plus breaks it down:What is Gupkar Declaration?On August 4, 2019, a day before the Union government announced the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, political parties in Kashmir, except the BJP, met at the residence of National Conference president, Farooq Abdullah, at Gupkar Road in Srinagar. They issued a joint statement later on defending Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.Since then, the joint statement is known as the 'Gupkar Declaration'.On October 15, 2020, NC chief Farooq Abdullah announced the formation of People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) after an all-party meet at his residence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The motive behind the alliance, which includes NC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), People's Conference (PC), Jammu & Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) & Awami National Conference (ANC), is to work towards restoring the special status of J&K after it was revoked in 2019. Later, on October 23, 2020, Abdullah was elected PAGD’s chairman and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti vice-chairperson. Veteran CPM leader M Y Tarigami was elected convenor while Lok Sabha member from South Kashmir Hasnain Masoodi was appointed coordinator of the group.Here’s a look leaders from J&K and the Gupkar alliance likely to attend the meet with the Prime Minister:Farooq Abdullah Chairman, National ConferencePresident & chairman of People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) medium83782165Farooq Abdullah is the son of NC leader Sheikh Abdullah. He was elected president of NC in August 1981.He has served as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on several occasions since 1982. In 1999, his party joined the Vajpayee-led NDA alliance, but in 2003, NC snapped ties with the NDA, with Abdullah saying his party did not see “eye to eye” with BJP on issues such as Kashmir and Gujarat. NC joined hands with the Congress-led UPA government ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha election and Abdullah was a cabinet minister until 2014. Abdullah has had a tumultuous relationship with the Modi-led BJP government which came to power in 2014. He said the BJP would “sink” in the game of “communal politics” played by its leaders.On September 16, 2019, Abdullah became the first mainstream politician to be detained under the Public Safety Act (PSA). Prior to this, Abdullah was placed under unofficial house arrest following the scrapping of Article 370. He was released from house detention after seven-and-a-half months on March 13, 2020.Abdullah has been very critical of the Centre’s move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution that granted special status to J&K. As chairman of the Gupkar alliance, his views will be crucial during the meeting with PM Modi on June 24. Omar AbdullahNational Conference (NC)Last Leader of Opposition in J&K assembly medium83782211Omar Abdullah, the son of Farooq Abdullah, was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from Srinagar constituency as part of the Vajpayee-led NDA government. Thirteen months later, he was re-elected for his second term as an MP and took charge as Union minister of state for commerce and industry at the age of just 29.In 2002, Omar quit the Union Cabinet to concentrate on party affairs. A year later, NC officially snapped ties with NDA at the Centre citing differences over handling of the Kashmir issue and communal violence in Gujarat.In 2009, Omar took oath as the 11th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after his party joined hands with the Congress and formed a coalition government in the state. Omar has been vocal about his differences with the Modi government ever since the latter came into power in 2014. On August 4-5, 2019, Omar was placed under preventive detention hours before the scrapping of Article 370. He was booked under PSA, hours before his six-month custody was to end on February 5, 2020. He was finally released on March 24, 2020 after more than eight months in detention.He continues to be an active stakeholder in the affairs of J&K. In October 2020, he was quoted saying that the BJP "is out to destroy the character and identity of Jammu and Kashmir". Mehbooba Mufti SayeedPresident, J&K Peoples Democratic PartyFormer CM of J&K; vice-chairperson of People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration medium83782288Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed is the president of J&K (PDP), and the daughter of PDP founder and former J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. She came into the political limelight when she won the Bijbehara constituency in the 1996 Assembly elections in J&K on a Congress ticket. Mehbooba was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha (2004-2009) where she represented J&K’s Anantnag constituency. In 2014, she was elected again to the 16th Lok Sabha from the same constituency. She was sworn-in as the first woman chief minister of J&K on April 4, 2016 and formed a coalition government in J&K jointly with the BJP. She resigned in June 2018 after the BJP withdrew from the coalition. She was detained just before the revocation of the special status (autonomy) of the state on August 14, 2019 without any charges at first and later under PSA. She was released in October 2020, after the Supreme Court quizzed the government about the length of her detention. Muzaffar Hussain BaigJ&K Peoples Conference medium83782809Baig was one of the founding members of PDP. He joined Sajjad Lone’s People’s Conference in March this year due to differences with PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, especially after the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. Baig, who helped stitch the BJP-PDP alliance in 2014, was a deputy chief minister in the government, and is considered close to the NDA. He was one of the few prominent Kashmiri politicians who were not detained after the abrogation of Article 370. Last year, Baig was conferred the Padma Bhushan. A former MP and a two-time ex-MLA from Baramulla in north Kashmir, Baig has a good support base in north Kashmir. Abdul Rehman BhatVice president, PDPA former member of the J&K Legislative Assembly, Abdul Rehman Bhat represented Bijbehara constituency from 1999 to June 2018. He was part of the PDP-BJP coalition government from 2015-2018 and served as J&K’s minister of state for rural development, Panchayati raj and road and building. Sajjad Gani LoneChairman, J&K People’s Conference medium83782453Sajjad Gani Lone is a former separatist. He is the leader of the J&K People's Conference (PC) and is the youngest son of the People's Conference founder Abdul Gani Lone. He entered active politics following his father Abdul Gani Lone's death in 2002, succeeding him as the chairman of the party. After parting ways with Hurriyat Conference in 2009, Lone contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from the Baramulla constituency as an independent candidate, but lost. In the 2014 Assembly elections, Lone was elected as MLA of Handwara, and was one of two People's Conference candidates elected to the state legislative assembly that year. Lone was taken into police custody on August 5, 2019 and was freed on 31 July 2020. Imran Reza AnsariJ&K People’s Conference medium83782565Ansari joined politics after the death of his father Iftikhar Hussain Ansari in 2014. He contested as a PDP candidate from Pattan constituency and won and was minister of information technology, technical education, youth service and sports. He has also served as the president of Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association. He quit the PDP in 2018 and joined the People’s Conference.Ansari was detained and kept in Centaur in August 2019 and was released later.Mohammed Yousuf TarigamiCPI(M)Spokesperson of People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration medium83782665Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami is a four-time legislator from Kulgam in South Kashmir. Immediately after the abrogation of Article 370, Tarigami was placed in house arrest at Srinagar for 35 days. He was brought to the AIIMS for treatment on the direction of the Supreme Court. Tarigami was the first political leader from the state to address a press conference after the abrogation of Article 370. Muzaffar ShahKashmir Awami National Conference medium83782700Muzaffar Shah comes from a political family. His father Ghulam Mohammad Shah was former CM of J&K and his mother Khaleda is former CM Farooq Abdullah’s elder sister. Muzaffar Shah was a minister in his father’s ministry between 1984 and 1986. He stood by his father in the event of the split of the National Conference to constitute the Awami National Conference in 1983.Mohammad Akbar LoneNational Conference medium83782719A member of Parliament representing Baramulla, Lone is a former cabinet minister in the Omar Abdullah government. After the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, he teamed up with fellow MP, Hasnain Masoodi, to challenge the constitutionality of the move in the Supreme Court. Javaid Mustafa MirPresident, J&K Peoples Movement medium83782790Mir, who represents Chadura constituency in Badgam district, was a cabinet minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government. He was among the six legislators who left the PDP after it lost power after the BJP pulled out of the coalition government. In 2019, Mir joined the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement, a party founded and then deserted by former bureaucrat and civil services exam topper Shah Faesal. He had said he wanted to try something different than “traditional politics”.Untitled Carousel 83726235