Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who made a conditional resignation, skipped office and the assembly on Wednesday, awaiting the Governor's decision on his offer to quit.
PDP patron Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form a government with the support of the Congress and the National Conference, while People's Conference leader Sajad Lone also staked claim to form the government with the help of the 25-member BJP.
Independent candidates have emerged as big winners in Jammu and Kashmir's maiden District Development Council polls, with 49 of them having been declared elected so far from 280 seats, putting them ahead of parties like the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
The Jammu and Kashmir assembly was on Monday adjourned for the day following pandemonium after the speaker rejected an adjournment motion notice moved by Opposition Peoples Democratic Party demanding discussion on the death of a National Conference worker allegedly in police custody.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
In a word of advice to Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz on Tuesday said the National Conference leader should "not get emotional" over the allegation of him being involved in a sex scandal and press for his resignation.
Young National Conference Chief Omar Abdullah, who is set to don the mantle of chief minister on Monday, has a difficult road ahead with terrorism as well as growing regional and urban-rural divide in Jammu and Kashmir certain to be high on his agenda.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday met Governor N N Vohra and briefed him about the prevailing situation in the state. The meeting came in the backdrop of the row over the alleged custodial death of a National Conference worker. "The chief minister called on the governor here this afternoon and discussed with him the prevailing situation," official sources said. The sources said Omar briefed the governor about the steps taken by his government.
A senior minister of the ruling National Conference escaped an attempt on his life even as one policeman was killed and three others were injured in an attack in Srinagar on Sunday evening.
"It (JK) is not a political issue as far as I can see. They have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 50 or 70 years by talking about the politics of it, that the political situation has never improved. We seriously need to look at in terms of how it is a society that is in search for itself," Drabu had said at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on Friday.
"Modiji reminded that nation bows before Constitution and not him!"
"Several innocent people have been killed and I strongly feel violence should come to an end," Abdullah said.
"No question of supporting either the Congress or PDP or National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir," BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. Asserting that this was the BJP's 'clear-cut' plan, he said, "There are lots of ideological differences with them as they all are directly or indirectly supporting the terrorists."
The National Conference suffered a major setback in Jammu as two prominent leaders Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia resigned from the party on Sunday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday appointed observers for Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir a day after the party's good show in the assembly elections in the two states.
Amid renewed demands for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, National Conference's alliance partner Congress on Wednesday said the time was not right for it and rejected the contention that the central government was being blackmailed by army on this.
Congress candidate Jehangir Mir was on Saturday elected from the Poonch-Haveli Assembly constituency in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Congress, National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party have boycotted the first electoral exercise after abrogation of the state's special status.
Iltija, daughter of the former CM, had filed a habeas corpus (bring the person) petition in the apex court challenging the government's order issued on February 5 for invoking the Public Safety Act provision against Mehbooba Mufti to keep her in detention.
Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba on Thursday warned mainstream political workers and sarpanches of dire consequences if they fail to resign within a week.
The eight-phase DDC polls, which began on November 28, is also the first election after Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 was revoked last year and it was reorganised into a Union Territory.
Days after Jammu and Kashmir high court banned sale of beef, the state government has shunted out Additional Advocate General Vishal Sharma apparently for "failing to defend" its stand on the matter before the court.
An elected sarpanch of the ruling National Conference was shot dead by suspected militants at his residence in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district ahead of assembly polls.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Kavinder Gupta was elected unanimously as Speaker of the 12th Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir.
Syed Mir Qasim was the last Congress Chief Minister from December 1971 to February 24, 1975.
The high table might have yielded relief at personal levels, but its political implications look forbidding at this point in time, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Pandemonium hit the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly on Monday again as the speaker disallowed an adjournment motion moved by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party seeking a discussion on the alleged custodial death of a ruling National Conference worker in Srinagar last week.
Lal Singh has alleged that Kashmiri journalists have created "an erroneous atmosphere"
Counting of votes for four legislative council seats representing panchayat quota in the state is scheduled to be taken up on Thursday and the results are expected by noon.
The Congress on Sunday expressed confidence that it would emerge as the single largest party in Jammu and Kashmir and 'determine' the future of the new government. "The Congress will emerge as the single largest party. And if it is a coalition government, the Congress will determine its future," Union Minister and Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress chief Saifuddin Soz said, with early trends of the poll results indicating a hung assembly.
Veteran Gujjar leader Aslam Choudhary, a six-time legislator, is engaged in a do-or-die contest to secure back the Congress' lost electoral turf in the mountain-locked Surankote constituency, which goes to polls in first phase on Monday.
National Conference president Omar Abdullah escaped unhurt in powerful hand grenade explosion at an NC rally at Kralgund in the northern border district on Kupwara late on Monday afternoon.
The young MP earned the praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his speech. In a tweet, the prime minister said the Ladakh BJP MP coherently presented aspirations of people of the region in his speech.
Special Security Guard of the state police, which is in-charge of security of the chief minister and other important personalities including National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, have been asked to undergo a rigorous training to be imparted either by elite National Security Guard or any other professional agency.
Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad are both set to enter the Rajya Sabha from Jammu and Kashmir. Congress president Sonia Gandhi cleared their names and both the Congress leaders would be filing their nomination papers on Tuesday.
National Conference chief Omar Abdullah has termed the good turnout of voters during the first phase of assembly election as a positive indication towards a better future and stability of Jammu and Kashmir.Huge turnout of voters is an eye-opener and proves that the people of the state want Kashmir issue to be resolved, Omar said while addressing public meetings at Kalakote and Budhal in Rajouri district on Tuesday.
Negotiations between the BJP and the PDP to finalise the Common Minimum Programme have intensified
Launching the Ayushman Bharat scheme via a video-conference to extend health insurance benefits to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he said the three-tier panchayat system has fully taken shape in the UT, describing it as a realisation of Mahatma Gandhi's dream of 'gram swaraj' (village self-rule).
Out of the 280 constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, 43 are going to polls in the second phase with 25 in Kashmir and 18 in Jammu division.
The ultras fired on Ghulam Rasool Dar, also the Kulgam district president of the BJP's Kisan Morcha, and his wife in Anantnag town in south Kashmir, a police official said.
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