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 45-year-old separatist leader has been booked under the harsh law for waving Pakistani flag and chanting anti-India slogans at a rally in Sringar.
'Her tussle is a different ballgame from what it was when Farooq Abdullah and Rajiv Gandhi were the main players at the two ends of the power game.' 'The shadow of the party in power in New Delhi over J&K affairs in 1987 was not as menacing as it is in 2018,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the doyen of Kashmir commentators.
'Dulat's professional successors in the game would now find it that much harder to access/create meaningful sources/assets needed for effective functioning in a place like Kashmir. By blowing their cover the former top spy has undone whatever he might have been able to add to his organisation's resource kitty.'
Mehbooba also became the second Muslim woman to become the chief minister of any state in India.
Shops, business establishments and schools remained closed due to the strike called jointly by the JKLF, Hurriyat Conference factions led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani; and supported by almost all separatist groups in the Valley.
The BJP has already cobbled up 28 seats to counter-bargain with the PDP's 28 seats in future talks. It is up to the Kashmir-based parties like the National Conference and PDP to assess the damage of going with the BJP which is perceived as the 'Hindu' party in the state. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com's takeways from a historic but fractured mandate in Jammu and Kashmir.
He was also the second in Goa who died while still in office.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday sought to link the spate of terror attacks in Sopore area with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's alleged remark about revival of 'Ikhwanis', an outfit of reformed militants in the state.
The bypoll assumes significance as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is seeking her election to the assembly from the constituency.
'From what I know of her,' says Mohammad Sayeed Malik -- the distinguished doyen of Kashmir commentators -- 'Mehbooba will not take too long to recover.' 'How much room she can then find to maneuver in the valley's extremely harsh political climate only time can tell.'
The Army on Thursday evening staged a flag march in the Satwari area of Jammu city after a Sikh youth was killed in police firing, while two others were wounded in daylong clashes between protestors and security forces.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday launched a veiled attack on Congress leaders and said he gave sweat and blood for the party unlike those who are spreading 'falsehood' through social media.
The chief minister invoked the legacy of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, by sending a strong message of peace and reconciliation to both India and Pakistan.
Omar also said he would never prefer horse trading to end the stalemate.
Tassaduq Hussain has always been reluctant to jump into full-time politics.
PM Modi said the Centre was not consulted by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
There were no signs of either the Peoples Democratic Party, the largest group, or the Bharatiya Janata Party, the close runner-up, getting the requisite numbers to stake claim to forming a new government in Jammu and Kashmir as the deadline set by Governor N N Vohra for discussions fast approached.
J&K CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed hinted that his daughter Mehbooba Mufti may step in his shoes as chief minister of the state.
The political script for pre-2019 politics has gone with the wind and the writers of the new script seem in no great hurry to oblige the tormented, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Authorities in J&K have imposed strict restrictions in parts of summer capital Srinagar which is already under a thick security blanket ahead of Independence Day.
The second meeting of the NITI Aayog's governing council, was, however, attended by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Asia's largest tulip garden is in full bloom with rows of tulips of all hues adding fairy tale-like splendour to the cascading slopes of the Zabarwan foothills. Mukhtar Ahmad reports
It is for the first time in the history of Independent India that not a single Muslim is part of the Union Cabinet.
Peoples Democratic Party continued to play the guessing game on the issue of forming the new government with its ally Bharatiya Janata Party by saying on Friday that it cannot put a time frame for it.
This was for the second time in the past six years that Hussain, who also worked for an intelligence unit of the Pakistani army, was arrested while trying to infiltrate into this side from across the border.
'The spirit of religious faith in Kashmir is inclusive.' 'There an inclusiveness of Islam in Kashmir.' 'An ordinary Kashmiri can be a political fundamentalist, but he can never be a religious fundamentalist.'
Ganderbal was once the bastion of the Abdullah family but this time around, the electoral battle in this north Kashmir assembly constituency is being fought sans the Abdullah's.
"If we (the Kashmiris) don't talk about it (dialogue), who will? Not a Bihari, not a Punjabi," she said.
The alleged custodial death of the ruling National Conference worker, Sayeed Mohammad Yusuf took a new turn on Tuesday when the state crime branch presented another NC activist Mohammad Yusuf Bhat in a local court to record his statement.
'Abrogation of Article 370 is not legal because it is the legal basis of Kashmir's accession to India.'
PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Saturday appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative 'to reach out to Sharif.
Internet services in Jammu and Kashmir were fully restored on Monday, three days after the state government ordered the termination of data services fearing trouble during Eid-ul Azha, popularly known as Bakri Eid.
The JeI (J&K) also has several trusts for running schools to disseminate orthodox Islamic education, has a youth wing and has numerous publications for spreading its fundamentalist ideology.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is projected to get a majority in Jharkhand while Jammu and Kashmir may return a hung verdict with PDP emerging as the single largest party followed by BJP in assembly elections in the two states, according to two separate exit polls on Saturday.
Rashid was at the Press Club in Delhi on Monday afternoon, when three men set upon him and threw black ink on him.
Here's the chronological list of all major terror attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir in the last two decades.
The re-opening of the state government offices in Srinagar after the annual Darbar Move was marked by citywide shutdown and protests.
As suspense over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir continued, Peoples Democratic Party on Monday said the idea of a grand alliance with the National Conference and Congress was an option for forming a stable government in the state.
A high polling percentage of about 71 percent was recorded in the 18 constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir that went to polls on Tuesday in the second phase of the 5 phase assembly elections.
