A day before the scheduled ‘opposition Unity’ meeting, former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, on Thursday reached Bihar’s Patna to participate in the conclave.
While Mehbooba Mufti on her arrival paid obeisance at Yousuf Shah Chak’s grave in Bihar, National Conference Spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar confirmed to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) about the participation of former J&K chief minister, Omar Abdullah in the meeting.
“Yes Omar Sahab will be attending the opposition meeting in Bihar tomorrow and he has already left today,” said Dar.
Mufti in an appeal to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, asked for steps to preserve the relic of history after she mentioned that the site is in ‘absolute disrepair and ruins’.
“Paid obeisance at Yousuf Shah Chak’s grave in Bihar. As the last muslim ruler of Kashmir, his resting place symbolises the ties between Kashmir & Bihar. Unfortunately the site is in absolute disrepair & ruins.Appeal @NitishKumarji to take steps to preserve this relic of history”, she tweeted.
Notably, after snapping ties with the BJP in August last year, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar has been pitching for opposition unity, and in that connection, he had called a meeting of opposition leaders scheduled on 23 June 2023, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
It is also worth noting that, with the repeal of Article 370 and the division of J&K into two UTs, leadership of both the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have been vocally criticizing the BJP’s policies not only in Jammu and Kashmir but also across the country.
Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah, and Omar Abdullah have been criticizing the BJP and the Election Commission of India (ECI) for failing to conduct assembly elections in J&K.
Meanwhile, a senior congress leader told KNO that it is unlikely anyone from Congress from J&K would be a part of the meeting but said that it is most likely the top leadership of Congress including Rahul Gandhi will be participating in the meeting.
“I am not sure if anyone from Kashmir would be going on behalf of Congress, but Rahul Ji and some other senior leaders are likely to participate in the meeting,” said a senior congress leader.
As per the reports, 18 political parties would participate in the meeting in Patna to discuss the strategy to challenge the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections
