Elizabeth R. 

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is considering inviting leaders of South Asian countries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to his oath-taking ceremony as prime minister.

Khan is expected to take oath on 11 August and should Modi accept the invite, it could open the doors for normalization of ties between the two countries.

“The core committee of Tehreek-i-Insaf is considering inviting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) heads, including Mr Modi, and a decision on this is expected shortly,” an unidentified leader of Khan’s party was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. The leader cited above also termed Modi’s telephone call to Khan on Monday following his victory in the polls as a welcome sign to start a new chapter in bilateral ties.

The Indian foreign ministry late Monday said Modi had spoken to Khan and “reiterated his vision of peace and development in the entire neighbourhood”. People familiar with the development on the Indian side said Khan’s party had “not yet” issued an invitation to Modi when asked if this had been discussed between the two in their telephone conversation on Monday.

A spokesperson for Khan’s party, Fawad Chaudhry, also did not rule out inviting Modi to the swearing-in ceremony. “A decision about it will be taken by the party in consultation with the foreign ministry in coming days,” he said.

In a speech on 26 July, Khan had said that if “you (India) take one step forward we will take two steps forward” to improve relations.

If Khan invites all Saarc heads of state for his swearing-in, he will be taking a leaf out of Modi’s book. The Indian prime minister had in 2014 invited Saarc heads of state or governments to his inauguration in New Delhi. Then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif had attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. The two sides had subsequently tried to open talks that have been frozen since 2013 but the attempt failed with Pakistan insisting on engaging Kashmiri separatists ahead of talks with Indian officials. Subsequent efforts to resume the dialogue also ran aground.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took a leaf out of his Gujarat campaign to finalize a broad blueprint for his Madhya Pradesh campaign strategy and is likely to continue with temple visits in the poll-bound state.

Gandhi chaired a high-level meeting on Tuesday morning with senior leaders from the state and, given the electoral importance of Madhya Pradesh, it is likely that he would spend at least 30 days in the run-up to the polls there.

“The first phase of his campaign will be around a ‘bus yatra’ in which he will intermittently visit different places and address small rallies. His campaign is expected to begin from the third week of August and the starting point is likely to be the Omkareshwar Temple in Ujjain,” a senior party functionary aware of the development said, requesting anonymity.

Gandhi’s campaign for Madhya Pradesh will be a replica of the Gujarat campaign and, among other things, will include a visit to a prominent temple in Datia, said the leader cited above. The temple visits of Gandhi are significant because the party president adopted a similar approach in both Gujarat and Karnataka elections, a move seen as a way to reach out to the Hindu comThe munity in poll-bound states.

Winning Madhya Pradesh, where chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is fighting anti-incumbency, is a challenge for the Congress, which has been out of power in the state for nearly 15 years now.

importance of Madhya Pradesh for the Gandhi scion can be understood from the fact that despite two other states—Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh—going to polls around the same time, the Congress party chief is expected to spend at least a month out of the expected campaign window of nearly three months in that state.

In Tuesday’s strategy meeting, Rahul Gandhi also took stock of the party’s poll preparedness in the state. Senior party leaders like state unit chief Kamal Nath, campaign committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia, coordination committee chief Digvijay Singh, general secretary in-charge Deepak Babaria and leader of opposition in the state Ajay Singh attended the meeting, a senior party leader said. “A detailed plan is being worked out specially around candidate selection. We will give at least 100 days to probable candidates to have enough time to campaign in their regions. Winnability is the key criteria which we are looking at,” another party leader from MP said, requesting anonymity.

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Courtesy: Mint: 1 Aug 2018