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.
A group of 30 young girl students were allegedly made to wait for several hours at the airport in extreme cold on Sunday morning, as they were brought for a function to be presided over by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has announced the setting up of a Rs 100-crore (Rs 1 billion) multi-purpose shopping arcade in Srinagar.
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.
People had lined up on the either side of the road to greet the President, who drove to the circuit house from the airport.
Mehbooba also became the second Muslim woman to become the chief minister of any state in India.
Ten new faces, four of them belonging to Congress, were inducted taking the strength of the ministry to 39.
Omar Abdullah, who on Wednesday resigned as chief minister, indicated that his National Conference could play a part in government formation in Jammu and Kashmir after the election threw up a hung assembly.
One year after his death, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's legacy stands crucially poised, says Mohammad Sayeed Malik.
Major portfolios like home, finance and education were on Tuesday allocated to People's Democratic Party ministers by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who will himself hold the charge of home ministry.
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.
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 sectarian killings by hit-and-run groups have revived and sharpened communal fears among the victims while the Poonch encounter reveals how deep the terrorists have dug in without getting noticed in the porous border area, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Rashid was at the Press Club in Delhi on Monday afternoon, when three men set upon him and threw black ink on him.
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.
Tassaduq Hussain has always been reluctant to jump into full-time politics.
The fate of the BJP-PDP alliance may be known on Monday as PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti talks tough.
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.
The suspension of four National Conference members had prompted the opposition leaders to boycott the ongoing session of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.
Separatist-turned politician Sajjad Lone dismissed reports that he was miffed over being given a low-key portfolio in the PDP-BJP govt.
Authorities clamped strict restrictions in Srinagar and north Kashmir's Sopore town to foil a separatist march on Friday.
In the backdrop of the release of separatist leader Masarat Alam, Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Ram Madhav met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and called for a better coordination between the alliance partners
PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti on Monday stood by her father's controversial statement.
'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.
The decision came after the PDP's core group met for the first time on Sunday following the demise of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
This will be first foray into electoral politics for Hussain, who officially joined the PDP on January 7.
Protests, an uneasy calm and a sense of deep grief enveloped south Kashmir's Anantnag on Monday, a day after Zahid Rasool Bhat, a 19-year-old trucker, succumbed to his injuries after the truck, which he was travelling in was attacked over beef rumours.
"We have not accepted any new condition from the PDP," said Madhav, the party's pointsman in the state.
With uncertainty looming large over the continuance of Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said his party is ready to consider a tie-up with the saffron party for government formation if such an offer is received.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is facing sedition charge, on Monday said he is a "bigger patriot" than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not want to upset Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti by arresting the "real traitors" in the JNU case.
>All old signposts have been uprooted and milestones bulldozed. New ones have yet to emerge. The old order stands degraded in the new landscape whose contours are indistinct, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
PM Modi said the Centre was not consulted by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
Kashmir's youth are being radicalised. The once-alienated separatists are ready to return to their old haunting ground. The ruling PDP-BJP coalition finds itself on the defensive over almost every issue of governance.
