"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
A man of perseverance and great survivor, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed had an astute political sense honed by decades of experience in Kashmir politics that has stood him in good stead in crafting a delicate alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party to return as chief minister for the second time.
Only three per cent of women candidates have been allotted tickets in Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.
The voter turnout in the first three phases of the civic polls in the valley has been low.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said she was deeply distressed by the killing of 'civilians' in 'crossfire'.
Facing flak from opposition parties and separatists, Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday made a U-turn on the controversial plans for composite townships in the valley for displaced Kashmiri Pandits, saying they are "part and parcel of the Kashmiri fabric of life" and would be settled at their native places and "not as an isolated community".
As opposition leaders like the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Janata Dal-United supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed solidarity with Kejriwal on Saturday and renewed calls to speed up opposition unity efforts to take on the BJP, officials said the CBI may ask the AAP chief about the policy formulation process, especially of the "untraceable" file which was earlier slated to be put before the Delhi Council of Ministers.
Released on Friday after his detention under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) was revoked, former chief minister Farooq Abdullah drove from his residence to nearby Hari Nivas where his son, also a former chief minister, has been held first under preventive custody since February 5 under the PSA. The two warmly embraced.
'We were advocating Indian democracy and Indian Constitution. The other side (separatists) questioned Indian Constitution, democracy and accession. This action of scrapping Article 370 has vindicated their point.'
'The government is adopting double standards by allowing foreign envoys to visit Jammu and Kashmir, but not Indian politicians'
The Congress released a booklet 'Nau saal, Nau sawaal', asking nine questions from Modi. The BJP rejected the Congress' criticism as a 'bundle of lies and mountain of deception' and said the questions are born out of 'pathological hatred' of the PM.
The prime minister took no names but made an apparent reference to reports about "rate card" for different government jobs in the Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and prevalence of "cut money" in the state.
This is probably for the first time that curfew is in place on the day of Eid festival ever since militancy broke out in the state in 1990.
Amid continuing suspense over formation of new government in Jammu and Kashmir, Governor N N Vohra on Friday invited the People's Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the first and second largest parties in the elections, which threw up a highly-fractured verdict with no clear winner.
The Peoples Democratic Party on Saturday set tough conditions for the Bharatiya Janata Party which is wooing it for the formation of the new government in Jammu and Kashmir, declaring that its stand against revocation of Art 370 was "non-negotiable".
It is expected that Sayeed will invite Modi for the swearing-in function in Jammu.
The BJP general secretary said it was untenable for them to continue in the alliance.
He also dismissed the possibility of a fractured mandate and claimed the party will get more seats than the last Lok Sabha polls.
Incumbent Deputy Mayor Aaley Mohammad Iqbal also got another term at the post, as BJP candidate Soni Pal withdrew her nomination. Iqbal and Pal were the two rival candidates for the post of deputy mayor.
If Jammu and Kashmir comes under Governor's rule, it will be for the eighth time in four decades.
'The performance of any government is benchmarked on five parameters -- India's external security, the state of the economy, social cohesion, internal security, and India's relations with the world or its foreign policy. On each of the benchmarks in the past nine years, the NDA-BJP government has come up completely short'
Analysts said a likely spell of governor's rule in the state will allow the central government to take tough measures against terrorism, which may provide the ruling BJP a plank in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Two government school teachers, including a woman, were shot dead by terrorists in Eidgah area of Srinagar amid increasing attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
She said the situation arising out of demonetisation has triggered a sort of constitutional crisis.
The Congress slammed Ravi Shankar Prasad, accusing him of distorting, twisting and lying "with a straight face".
The daring militant attack on an Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir last Friday shook the people of Uri town, situated close to Line of Control in Kashmir, but it did not deter them from exercising their franchise as voters thronged the polling station on Tuesday morning.
Sources in New Delhi say senior PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which could signal the launch of formal negotiations between the two political parties
Local people, however, rushed to their rescue and informed the police, he said.
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.
'There are many things we need to work on.' 'At the heart of it is, one, the extent of inequality, which is not good for democracy and nation; two, a structural decline on how a country ought to function, how people should be held accountable, whose role is what.'
A party without a 'high command' would be 'anarchy,' he said.
Negotiations between the BJP and the PDP to finalise the Common Minimum Programme have intensified
'It is not about trusting the governor but the ground situation not matching with what he has said,' Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement chief Shah Faesal, who was one of the leaders to meet the governor tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
Sounding the poll bugle for the second phase of Assembly elections in Udhampur, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sought a clear mandate for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir for the state's development
JD-U national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan, who addressed a press conference in Patna, however, dismissed queries about Kumar's absence at the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the terse remark 'you should ask the chief minister'.
'When democracy first came to Bhutan people had no idea and they were like 'What is that?' Oh it's that thing they have in India where the leaders are always fighting and arguing.' When I screened the film to Bhutan's film committee, they thought my film was good but they were concerned about that line. They wanted me to change that line. They said, 'We don't want to offend India.' I tried to tell them that Indians have a great ability to laugh at themselves but they insisted I change it.'
The BSF opened fire in Pakharpora near Charar-e-Sharif area to quell stone-pelting protesters in which at least one person was killed and five injured.
After the 18-member 'Assam Advisory Committee' suggested the two organisations to form a political party, a source close to the development said the new outfit will be launched within the next 10 days.
An eerie silence prevails with concertina wire barricades laid on deserted streets and police and armed forces personnel allowing civilians to move only after thorough checking.
The first phase of the polls in the Kashmir Valley saw 8.3 per cent turnout on October 8 while only 3.4 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise in the second phase held two days later.
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