Srinagar: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to take stock of the party’s preparations for the upcoming assembly elections in the Union Territory and explore a likely alliance with the National Conference.
The two leaders are visiting the UT for key meetings in connection with the three-phased assembly elections beginning September 18, a senior Congress leader said.
There were no official meetings scheduled for the two leaders for Wednesday, he said.
In the evening, they held a high-level alliance meeting with NC president Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, and other senior leaders at a Srinagar hotel, where they also had dinner together.
The two leaders will engage in extensive discussions with party leaders and workers of 10 districts of the Kashmir valley on Thursday. The meetings will begin at 10 am after which the two are likely to interact with the media here.
After wrapping up interactions here, they will fly to Jammu in the afternoon to continue their interactions with the cadres of 10 districts of the Jammu region.
The two leaders will take feedback from party workers about the grassroots-level preparations for the elections which are being held in the UT after a gap of ten years, the Congress leader said.
Meanwhile, a Congress functionary privy to the developments said that Gandhi and Kharge would reach out to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to explore the possibility of a bigger “tripartite alliance”
Meanwhile, the BJP asked Rahul Gandhi to clear his party’s stand on Article 370 and Article 35A during his visit.
BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh, who is his party’s organisational in-charge for the Union Territory, said Gandhi’s visit will introduce him to the “peace and development” ushered in the region by the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He alleged that three families, a reference to the leadership of Congress, the National Conference and the PDP, have over the last several decades stoked embers of separatism and terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir with their policies before the BJP government at the Centre turned things around in 2014.

  Congress, Election, Kashmir, Kashmir 370

Agencies