Following the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti’s meeting of the party’s political affairs committee (PAC) to formulate a strategy for the upcoming Assembly elections, the president of the National Conference (NC), Dr. Farooq Abdullah, has convened a two-day meeting of the working committee on 4 and 5 July in Srinagar to discuss preparations for the Assembly elections.

A spokesman of the NC said that the working committee meeting will address various issues affecting the public and the party, with a special focus on preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections.

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The party’s general secretary, Ali Muhammad Sagar, has issued a directive to all invitees to ensure their presence at the meeting venue.

The NC has established a committee, led by senior party member and former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, to chalk out the party’s manifesto for the Assembly elections.

NC general secretary Haji Ali Muhammad Sagar on Tuesday issued an official order regarding the formation of the committee. The committee has been tasked with presenting a draft of the manifesto within 45 days.

Abdul Rahim Rather has been nominated as the chairman of the manifesto committee, with senior party members, including Mian Altaf Ahmed, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi (both MPs), Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Ajay Kumar Sadhotra, Nasir Aslam Wani, Rattan Lal Gupta, Sakina Itoo, Sharifuddin Shariq, Muhammad Yousuf Taing, Prof Nisar Ali, Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy, Muzaffar Ahmad Khan, and Shaukat Ahmad Mir, as members of the committee.

Both the NC and the PDP are making determined efforts to plug the weak points for the defeat of their top party leaders, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.

The PAC of the PDP on Sunday met in Srinagar to discuss the party’s strategy for the coming Assembly elections. This was the first meeting of the PAC after the defeat of Mehbooba on the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat and also after the INDIA bloc disowned her party by refusing to assign her party even a single seat in the elections.

Mehbooba chaired the PAC meeting in which senior party leaders participated. Measures to strengthen the party at the grassroots level were deliberated, and the strategy to tackle the current political situation in Jammu and Kashmir was also considered.

Congress leadership of J&K recently discussed at Delhi the party’s preparedness for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge urging the leaders from the Union Territory to raise the voice of the people and stay among them.

During the meeting with Congress leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, Kharge told them to expose the tall claims of the ruling BJP and also highlight that the claim of peace and normalcy returning in the Union Territory stand exposed with recent terror attacks and asserted that the people in the region are once again looking at the Congress to return to power.

Kharge said that the Congress-led UPA government had got the panchayat polls conducted in Jammu and Kashmir. “We laid railway lines and ran trains there for the first time. We built big dams. We started schemes called ‘Himayat’ and ‘Udaan’ for the skill development of youngsters. Thousands of youngsters got employment due to these schemes,” he said.

The Congress president had convened the meeting of all leaders from Jammu and Kashmir to assess the party’s preparedness for the Assembly polls and to evolve a strategy to strengthen the organisation in the Union Territory.

Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary KC Venugopal were present during the deliberations.