Taking a dig at the Peoples' Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Monday that opposition in the state is nervous and worried as they were finding it difficult to cope up with the fact that they were out of power.
Mehbooba Mufti is likely to call a meeting of senior party leaders in the coming days to clear the "misgivings" about the deadlock over government formation with the BJP.
"Okay. Good," a bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said when the counsel of Union Territory administration and Iltija informed it about the release of Mufti, who is the president of the PDP.
The PDP chief visited New Delhi on Monday and has reportedly called a meeting of party legislators to brief them about her talks with BJP leaders.
The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party held "unbridled use of force" responsible for the present unrest in Jammu and Kashmir which has claimed so many lives saying the crisis had worsened with the guilty troops going unpunished.
The BJP will focus on the dozen constituencies that eluded it in the 2014 assembly elections. A better performance in these seats could help it reach as close as possible to the halfway mark of 44 seats by the time the next elections are held and have its own chief minister.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday said the rescue operations launched following a flash flood near the Amarnath cave shrine -- that left 15 people dead -- has been called off and there was no report of any person missing.
After meeting J&K Governor NN Vohra to stake a claim to form a new government in the state, PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday thanked the BJP for extending unconditional support.
A private school teacher in Rajasthan's Udaipur was arrested on Wednesday while three engineering students from Kashmir were held in Agra in Uttar Pradesh for posting messages on WhatsApp celebrating Pakistan's victory over India in the T20 World Cup cricket match three days ago.
I have always believed that the Nehruvian vision of giving a separate status to Jammu and Kashmir was a flawed one, says BJP's Arun Jaitley.
We'd like to know, however, is what you thought about the Modi-Sayeed hug?
People's Democratic Partypatron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed will head a 25-member cabinet, half of it from Bharatiya Janata Party, in Jammu and Kashmir and the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday in Jammu will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The governor said he wanted polls to take place in the state and an elected government to function.
The Kashmir-based PDP's linkage with the BJP could even be a turning point, provided it is safeguarded against real possibility of miscarriage. So-called fringe elements on either side, more so in the Saffron parivar, can easily upset Modi-Mufti applecart. They have only to drag contentious issues into limelight to do that, says Mohammad Sayeed Malik.
Jammu and Kashmir registered its highest turn-out in assembly elections in the last 25 years with an estimated 65 per cent of voters casting their votes, as the fifth and final phase of polling ended on Saturday. Jharkhand, which also went to the polls along with J&K, broke all previous polling records to witness over 66 per cent of turn-out in the five phases, bettering the previous mark of 54.2 per cent in the 2004 assembly poll.
A PDP-BJP alliance would have been formed on the evening of December 28 had the BJP agreed to let Mufti Mohammad Sayeed become chief minister for the first three years and allow the BJP to nominate its chief minister for the next three years.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday said the name of Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah never figured in the 2006 sex scandal case in which two ministers of the then Peoples Democratic Party regime were arrested.
"I have been brought here forcibly from my rented room in Rambagh (area of the city)," Manoj Kumar, a labourer from Bihar, said.
The state government last week announced the schedule for holding elections to local bodies and panchayats in the state.
Deadlock over government formation in J&K seems to have ended with PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday calling on PM Narendra Modi, a meeting which she described as "very positive" and "good" in addressing issues pertaining to the people of the state.
Prasad asserted that Article 370, which gave the erstwhile state a special status and was revoked last year, will not be restored.
Contours of government formation in Jammu and Kashmir appeared hazy on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the People's Democratic Party trying hard to hammer out a workable arrangement with various stakeholders.
Government formation in Jammu and Kashmir could be delayed as both the BJP and PDP want more time from Governor N N Vohra when they meet him on Tuesday evening.
The former chief minister had on Tuesday alleged that Army personnel had thrashed a family in Tral town of Pulwama and injured a female member. Mufti said she was going to meet the family on Wednesday.
Opposition National Conference on Wednesday accused the state government of discriminating against the Kashmir Valley over the distribution of power sector funds as they disrupted the proceedings of the Assembly, forcing the Speaker to marshal them out and adjourn the House for 10 minutes.
'People will feel cheated as they always felt a part of India. We want to be with India and we want people of India to accept us.' Laway tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
Two weeks after the assembly polls threw up a fractured verdict, Jammu and Kashmir continued to see a stalemate over government formation with the People's Democratic Party on Tuesday saying there is no progress in talks with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mehbooba said Article 370 was a bridge between the Union and the state.
Modi's policies have created space for terrorists in Kashmir, said Rahul.
"There have been no talks about supporting or not supporting....We have left the decision to the Congress since we do not make the numbers together (to form a government)," party chief Mehbooba Mufti said. Replying to questions, she said, "we are ready to sit in the opposition...We have a party, we have an agenda, we have our programmes to follow.
'It would be very easy for me to say, it's only the Pakistanis that want the Kashmir issue to remain alive.' 'Trust me, there is a vested interest on the Indian side in keeping the issue of Jammu and Kashmir alive.'
Mehbooba was addressing a joint press conference with Omar Abdullah and Hurriyat Conference Chief Mirwaiz Umer Farooq on the sidelines of the Hindustan Times Summit.
Though the PDP-BJP alliance staked claim to form government in the state last Saturday, the date for swearing-in of the chief minister-designate is yet to be announced.
People's Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was on Sunday sworn-in as the 12th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
The post of the speaker of Jammu and Kashmir assembly will go to the Bharatiya Janata Party with its MLA Kavinder Gupta likely to be the ruling People's Democratic Party-BJP alliance's choice for the chair.
Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Ram Madhav on Friday said his party was holding consultations with all important stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir for providing a stable government.
Expelled BJP ideologue Prof Hari Om speaks to Pervez Majeed.
Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and People's Democratic Party leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has demanded that the Centre investigate the role of Lieutenant General (Retired) S K Sinha in the Malegaon blast as during the latter's tenure as the state's governor, religious leader Dayanand Pandey used to visit Kashmir regularly and was treated like a state guest.Sources close to Lt Gen Sinha rejected Mufti's charges as outrageous.
It was also suggested that an all-party delegation should visit Kashmir to assess the situation but the government did not make commitments regarding any of their demands.