Opposition pushes plan for conclave on Kashmir, all-party meeting likely soon

Kashmir Conclave: Sharad Yadav meets Manmohan Shah; Omar Abdullah reaches out to CPI.

A series of meetings between Opposition leaders to plan a conclave on Kashmir, as also to look for a political solution, has picked up pace in Delhi. On Wednesday, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav met former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the second time in recent days to discuss the proposed conclave. A date for the conclave is likely to be decided after a meeting between Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
In the half-hour meeting, Yadav is learnt to have asked Singh about work being done by the policy-planning group of the Congress on Jammu and Kashmir — the former PM heads the group. In the evening, BJP’s Yashwant Sinha visited Yadav’s residence for the third time to chalk out plans.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference MP from Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah, met CPI national secretary D Raja today and called for a “political solution” to Kashmir. Abdullah had had discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on the issue on Tuesday.
Post-meeting, Yechury said, “The government’s Kashmir policy has been a total failure…. The Modi government should immediately begin a political dialogue with all sections of political opinion in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Sharad Yadav had also held discussions with Yechury and Raja in the last two days.
Sources said that once the Congress president gets well — Sonia was admitted in hospital for food poisoning — Manmohan Singh, who has already discussed the issue with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and J&K Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, will meet her and apprise her of the discussions held among Opposition leaders so far on Kashmir.
Sources in the Opposition said a meeting of all parties could be convened in the coming days to formulate a common position on the Kashmir issue.