BJP to discuss Centre-stakeholder dialogue in Kashmir, says Amit Shah

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New Delhi: On Wednesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah said the party will discuss the possibility of a dialogue between the Centre and all stakeholders to bring order to the disturbed state of Jammu and Kashmir. On Monday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said Prime Minister Narendra Modi intended to hold talks in a "conducive atmosphere" with all stakeholders to bring order to the troubled state. Mufti invoked ex-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's policy, saying "talks" were the only way to "move forward". "Mehbooba Mufti has given a statement. Now our party (the team which will decide the policy for Kashmir) will discuss the matter and come to me with their views. Then a decision will be taken," Amit Shah said when asked whether his party will initiate a dialogue with stone pelters, reported IANS. As speculations gained momentum about the possibility of Governor's rule in J&K, Mehbooba Mufti met Modi in New Delhi on Monday to review the worsening security situation; amid allegations that the PDP-BJP coalition government has failed to control law and order in the Kashmir Valley. Asked about security lapses after a video of school-going students raising Pakistani and Islamic State (IS) terror group flags in Srinagar surfaced, Shah denied it and said there is no security lapse. On Tuesday, BJP chief Amit Shah  kick-off his party's expansion drive from Naxalbari, a West Bengal village from where, in the late 1960s, the left-wing extremism had started. With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he will spend three-day each as he looks to strengthen the party in the states where it has been traditionally weak. The Trinamool Congress-ruled state is among the five states, including Odisha and Telangana, where the BJP is weak. Union Minister Smriti Irani announced this on Monday and on the occasion also took a dig at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi saying, the workers of a party going through a crisis are looking for their leader while the president of another party, which has won one election after another, is not resting on his laurels and working hard to strengthen it.