Today in Politics: Amit Shah likely to visit Kashmir; Kejriwal to kick off Punjab campaign with roadshow

Union Home Minister Amit Shah may be headed to Srinagar Thursday for a two-day visit to Kashmir, during which he will meet the BJP leaders and delegations from the Pahari community, trade bodies and civil society.

Shah is also likely to chair a security review meeting during his overnight stay in the Valley.

Voting has been wrapped up in three of Jammu and Kashmir(J&K)’s five Lok Sabha seats. The BJP has not fielded its candidates for the three seats in Kashmir but has unofficially extended support to some of the new political parties formed there after the abrogation of Article 370.

Two Valley constituencies — Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri — are going to polls in the fifth phase and sixth phase on May 20 and May 25, respectively. Ladakh’s lone Lok Sabha seat will vote on May 20.

National Conference leader and ex-chief minister Omar Abdullah and People’s Conference president Sajad Gani Lone are in the fray in Baramulla. PDP chief and ex-CM Mehbooba Mufti is contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat.

Earlier on Thursday, Shah will address rallies in Bihar’s Sitamarhi and Madhubani seats, which are going to polls on May 20.

Shah’s Kashmir visit comes a day after he made comments on the ongoing protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) at a BJP rally in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. While alleging that the Congress leaders were not in support of taking over PoK, he said, “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a part of India and we will take it back.”

After his release from Tihar Jail on May 10 on an interim bail granted by the Supreme Court, Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal has led a renewed campaign for the Lok Sabha polls with a fresh strategy for the party. Kejriwal had been in the prison for nearly 50