Should the NC and Congress form the new coalition government, it will keep two powerful and contradictory political voices in the opposition. In Kashmir, the PDP represents a substantial chunk of moderate separatist voices within the mainstream. In Jammu, the BJP has emerged as the representative of a significant chunk of the Hindu minority. For entirely political reasons, neither is likely to make any effort for regional and ideological reconciliation across the state. In a way therefore, a Congress-NC coalition will mean that Jammu and Kashmir’s opposition will actually be stronger than its government.

Politically, the partners will be occupied with different enemies. The NC’s biggest rival is the PDP, and it will try to push it to the fringes of politics in Kashmir before the next elections. The Congress has to fight the BJP in its political turf of Jammu. It is not immediately clear how this manoeuvring will pan out over the next six years.

Yet, despite the hung verdict and the many questions it has raised, there is one clear consensus across the state: that this is a golden opportunity to put Kashmir back on the road to peace and prosperity, and end its pain once and for all.