Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will be part of the 28-member all-party delegation, led by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, that will visit Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday and Monday after the State saw an outbreak of violence.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and former J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge will also be part of the delegation, which includes All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
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Apart from the 28 parliamentarians, senior officials will be travelling to the State. A senior government official told The Hindu that the delegation members will be “free” to meet any leader from the State or groups, “including separatists.”
Other members include Union Minister Jitendra Singh, Congress leader Ambika Soni, Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (U), Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), D. Raja of the CPI, Nationalist Congress Party MP Tariq Anwar and Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy and P. Venugopal from the AIADMK.
Though the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have supported the move to send the delegation to Kashmir, they would not nominate any leader to go to the Valley.
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The Shiv Sena has nominated MPs Sanjay Raut and Anandrao Adsul for the delegation, while the Telegu Desam Party will send Thota Narasimham. The Shiromani Akali Dal will send Prem Singh Chandumajra and the Biju Janata Dal has nominated football legend Dilip Tirkey for the visit.
Badaruddin Ajmal of the All India United Democratic Front, E. Ahamed of the Muslim League, N. K. Premchandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, Tiruchi Siva of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Y. B. Subba of the YSR-Congress, Jaiprakash Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Dharamveer Gandhi of the Aam Aadmi Party are the other members.