Congress for early J&K elections, to hold meeting in Srinagar
New Delhi, July 2: The Congress on Monday said it wanted early elections in Jammu and Kashmir as it ruled out possibility of supporting the PDP for forming an alternate government in the state.
General Secretary in-charge of the state Ambika Soni told reporters after a meeting of the party's policy planning group on Kashmir that the party will prepare for fresh elections on the basis of its programmes, while a meeting of 100 senior party leaders from all three regions of the state will be held in Srinagar on Tuesday to chalk out the future roadmap.
The policy planning group discussed the prevailing political situation in the state and the way the alliance of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) "frittered away" its mandate in the state where Governor's Rule was imposed last month after BJP pulled out of the Mehbooba Mufti-led government.
The meeting, held at the residence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was attended by former Union Ministers P. Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad, state Congress chief G.A. Mir and former MP Tareeq Hameed Karra.
It was the second meeting of the group since imposition of Governor's Rule.
Sources said the group discussed the confidence-building measures taken during the UPA I and UPA II governments and how the BJP-PDP alliance government had failed to meet expectations of people.
The meeting decided that the group will complete its pending visit to Ladakh at the earliest and will visit Kargil and Leh.
Soni later told the media that fresh elections should be held as early as possible.
"We (Congress) want early election in state. We have demanded that there should be an election as early as possible. The roadmap of the election will be discussed tomorrow (Tuesday). We need to strengthen our party first," she said.
She said Governor's Rule should not be there in the state for more than five to six months.
Talking to IANS, Soni said that party leaders, during a meeting with state Governor N. N. Vohra, had demanded dissolution of the state assembly.
"We have categorically asked for democratic processes to be restored. They (PDP-BJP) frittered away a mandate. The question of government formation has not been discussed by the party. The question does not arise."
The meeting in Srinagar will be attended by party leaders including MLA, MLCs, former and present MPs.
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574 players for IPL auctions: 366 Indians, Pant, Iyer in top bracket, 13-year-old Vaibhav youngest
New Delhi, Nov 15: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Arshdeep Singh will headline a 574-strong list of players with top base price of Rs 2 crore at the upcoming Indian Premier League auction scheduled in Saudi Arabia's Jeddah on November 24 and 25.
Thirteen-year-old India U-19 cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi from Bihar is the youngest among the lot at Rs 30 lakh base price.
The BCCI on Friday pruned the initial list of 1574 players down to 574 out of which 366 are Indians and 208 from overseas. All the current India players are in top base price bracket.
Apart from Pant, set to be the costliest buy at the auction with a team like Punjab Kings aiming to go the distance with Rs 110.50 crore in its kitty, the other big names include IPL winning captain Shreyas Iyer, India's most prolific T20I bowler Arshdeep Singh, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal and Avesh Khan.
There are 81 players in the top bracket while 27 are in Rs 1.5 crore category. There are 18 in the Rs 1.25 crore category while 23 have priced themselves at Rs 1 crore.
Jos Buttler of England also enjoys the top base price bracket of Rs 2 crore along with countrymen Harry Brook and Jonny Bairstow while the retired James Anderson, at Rs 1.25 crore base price, has made it to the curtailed list despite T20 not being his strongest format.
The biggest names in the top bracket from overseas are Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje from South Africa, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc from Australia. Marco Jansen and Rachin Ravindra are priced at Rs 1.25 crore.
There are 48 capped Indians while 193 are capped overseas players.
Former India U-19 World Cup winning skipper Unmukt Chand, who has migrated to the United States, has made the cut as Associate member nation player while seamer Saurabh Nethravalkar, who was a revelation during T20 World Cup, wasn't shortlisted.
Italy's Thomas Draca, who plays for MI Emirates, also didn't make the cut.
