The day started as usual at the Civil Secretariat in Srinagar, with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and her Cabinet colleagues attending office — no grapevine in the corridors of power and no inkling of any impending development. Only the BJP Ministers, attending a meeting in Delhi, were absent.
Ms. Mufti started her day earlier than usual. She held a breakfast meeting with the Centre’s special representative on J&K, Dineshwar Sharma, at her residence, located close to the banks of the Dal Lake — the lush forest range of Zabarwan serving as the backdrop.
Around 11 a.m., slightly later than usual, Ms. Mufti’s entourage reached the Civil Secretariat. She called a meeting of selected MLAs and Ministers to discuss the implementation of the Supreme Court’s order on promotions for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees. The meeting remained inconclusive, said a source.
It was followed by meetings with delegations seeking redress on local issues. Ms. Mufti, who skips lunch, ordered tea and snacks as usual.
It was around 1.45 p.m. that she was alerted by a phone call from a top BJP leader, who broke the news to her ahead of the press conference of BJP national secretary Ram Madhav in New Delhi.
She started browsing TV channels and stopped at NDTV as it flashed the decision of the BJP to pull out from its alliance with the PDP.
At 2.10 p.m., Ms. Mufti decided to leave for home.
“She preferred to leave the office silently, all alone,” said a senior official. It is not known if she knew about the BJP decision in advance. Sources said that on Monday evening, she had decided against chairing a function in Srinagar on Tuesday afternoon.