Chidambaram to head all-party delegation to J&K

Home Minister P Chidambaram will lead an all-party delegation that will visit Jammu and Kashmir on Monday and Tuesday, Congress sources said, after a meeting with UPA President Sonia Gandhi.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the core committee of the party on Kashmir, chaired by Gandhi. Defence Minister A K Antony, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jammu and Kashmir PCC Chief Saifuddin Soz, AICC General Secretary Prithviraj Chavan (in charge of party affairs in J&K), political secretary to the party chief Ahmad Patel and Chidambaram were also present.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal will be part of the delegation. The delegation will comprise MPs and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which had proposed Shahid Siddiqui’s name, has been advised to replace him.

The Bharatiya Janata party is yet to finalise the names of its representatives but general secretary Arun Jaitley and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, are likely to be part of the team.

The CPI(M) has nominated Basudeb Acharia and the CPI will be represented by Gurudas Dasgupta. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP A Owaisi and E Ahamad from the Indian Union Muslim league will be the other members. Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD MP Rajneeti Prasad will be part of the delegation.