The Congress indicated to the National Conference (NC) leader, Farooq Abdullah, that his son Omar Abdullah is be a better choice for the post of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in case of any alliance between the two parties.

As per the sources, Congress party conveyed to Farooq that “it would be better to have a fresh face as Chief Minister of the troubled state”. The party met here, under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi last night, and discussed the post-poll scenario in Kashmir.

Farooq kept changing stand on the NC’s Chief Ministerial candidate for the coalition with the Congress.

Srinagar, Dec. 28 : The emerging trends of the Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly elections show that the National Conference (NC) and the People''''s Democratic Party (PDP) have taken early leads with 27 and 17 seats respectively.

The available trends at 12.30 p. m, however, are indicating a fractured mandate with the State Assembly poised for a hung Assembly.

Apart from the two leading parties National Conference (NC) and People's Democratic Party (PDP) Congress party was leading in 13 constituencies followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party in 11.

The available trends from 82 of the 87 seats showed NC (27), PDP (17), Cong (13), BJP (11) and others (14)

New Delhi, Dec. 28 : The Congress party will hold a meeting in the national capital today to take stock of the results of Jammu and Kashmir State Assembly Elections.

The trends indicate that there would be a hung Assembly and the State is heading for a coalition government. According to trends available in the afternoon, the National Conference is leading in 28 seats, the People's Democratic Party in 21, the Congress in 17 and the Bharatiya Janata Party in 11. Others, including independents are leading in ten constituencies.

Srinagar, Dec. 28 : The National Conference has emerged as the leading party in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, the results of which were declared on Sunday evening.

The National Conference secured 28 seats, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) 21, Congress-17, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-11, and independent candidates 10 seats in the seven-phased polls.

Speculations are rife that Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) may prefer staking claim to form government in coalition with Congress.

Srinagar, Dec 28 : Counting of votes for the 87 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir began at 22 centres in district headquarters across the state.

Electoral fate of 1,353 candidates will be decided including former Chief Ministers Gulam Nabi Azad of Congress (Bhadarwal), Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the People''s Democratic Party (PDP) (Anantnag) and National Conference''s (NC) Farooq Abdullah (Sonawar and Hazratbal), NC president Omar Abdullah (Ganderbal) and PDP''s Mehbooba Mufti (Wachi).

Recent statistics by the Jammu and Kashmir police offers a hope of peace in Jammu and Kashmir in future. These statistics reveal that there was a drop of 40 percent in terrorism-related incidents as compared to last year.

The number of militancy-related incidents has come down below four-digits ~ just around 700 this year; this was lowest number in 20-year-long history of terrorism.

Civilian casualties were 89, this number is lower than number of civilian deaths in any previous year.