DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENT: Omar Abdullah questions J&K assembly dissolution 'minutes after Mehbooba Mufti staked claim to form government'

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chief Omar Abdullah has said that the sensational events of Wednesday evening, which has seen the Governor of J&K dissolving the state assembly, is not a coincidence.

SENSATIONAL: Jammu And Kashmir Governor Dissolves State Assembly, Even As Parallel Claims Are Made To Form A Government

The tweet comes minutes after the J&K Governor dissolved the state assembly, even as two competing claims were made to forming the government in the state --  one by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and backed by NC and Congress, and the other, by Sajad Lone, Handwara MLA, backed by the BJP.

Shortly before that he had tweeted in reference to Mehbooba Mufti's claim that she hadn't been able to get her letter staking a claim to the Governor:

Dramatic developments unfolded in J&K on Thursday as first, setting aside years of being rivals, the PDP and JKNC allied with each other as well as the Congress, with an eye to forming a government in the state. Hours later, a letter staking claim was indeed sent to the Governor by Mehbooba Mufti. Parallelly, Handwara MLA Sajad Lone sent a competing claim to forming the government, backed by the BJP. However, the J&K Assembly has since been dissolved.

It was in June, following the Ramzan ceasefire, that the BJP had pulled out of the PDP-led Jammu and Kashmir government that had been in power in the state since 2015, initially under the Chief Ministership of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, and following his demise in January 2016, his daughter Mehbooba Mufti.

At that time, when the J&K government had fallen, National Conference chief and former J&K CM Omar Abdullah had indeed issued a call for the assembly to be dissolved and for immediate assembly elections to be held in the state. After that, even as the state was put under Governor's rule, as per sources, a number of meetings had been held with a view to forming a majority alliance in the state. 

In the 2014 J&K assembly elections, the PDP had emerged the biggest party with 28 seats, the BJP was second biggest with 25, the NC was third with 15 and the Congress had 12 seats. The J&K Assembly has a total of 87 seats with 44 needed for a majority.