Jammu/Srinagar, July 17 -- Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday expressed gratitude to the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi for writing a letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding restoration of statehood to the union territory. Responding to media queries here on the sidelines of a function, Omar said, "We are repeatedly told that J&K will be given statehood at an appropriate time. Even the Supreme Court while delivering its decision (on petitions challenging revocation of Article 370) has stated that it (statehood) will be restored as soon as possible and that it should be given at the earliest." The chief minister thanked Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and LoP Rahul Gandhi for writing a letter to the PM. "This is a good thing. I thank Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi for raising this issue. We are not demanding anything that has not been promised to us before. We have been told many times that we will be given statehood at the right time," he said. He further said that the statehood was promised to the J&K within the Parliament, outside Parliament, Supreme Court and at various public forums. It may be stated here that various political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have been persistently demanding statehood since BJP government at the Centre revoked Article 370 on August 5, 2019, and bifurcated erstwhile state of J&K into two UTs--Ladakh without legislature and J&K with legislature. Meanwhile, the J&K Pradesh Congress Committee expressed gratitude to the party high command for raising the demand before the PM. Congress has decided to intensify the struggle for statehood during the forthcoming session of Parliament starting from July 21.In a meeting of senior PCC leaders here under the chairmanship of PCC president Tariq Hameed Karra, he said that the Congress high command has taken up the call at a very important juncture, when Parliament session is starting on July 21 and the Centre should bring a bill in this regard at the earliest, as promised on the floor of the House, before the Supreme Court and in public rallies, as reminded in the joint letter to the Prime Minister. The PCC accused the Modi government of denying the people of J&K, the most genuine and basic right of people regarding statehood. "It is the most unfortunate and dictatorial attitude of the BJP government towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir," the PCC stated. The PCC decided to intensify the statehood movement by holding a strong protest against the Centre and the BJP in Srinagar, Jammu, followed by Delhi Chalo call for Parliament gherao. When asked that Congress has said that they will be gheraoing Parliament, Omar said that he was not in talks with Congress on this issue. "We have not been in any talks with Congress, once we speak to them we will decide what to do," he said. Of late Omar and his cabinet colleagues have raised the pitch for statehood and even had confrontation with LG Manoj Sinha over several issues especially on the appointment of advocate general, transfer of officers and business rules. Even NC president Farooq Abdullah recently said that if all the doors for statehood restoration are closed, they will have no option but to knock on the doors of the Supreme Court....