The chief minister of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, has resigned on Tuesday after the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quit a coalition with her party.
The BJP said the three-year alliance with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) had become "untenable" in the wake of increasing violence, reports BBC.
The PDP's decision to ally with the BJP had been seen as controversial.
Its time in power was marked by rising violence in the Kashmir valley.
Influential Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari was killed by unidentified gunmen as he was leaving his office in Srinagar last week.
Mr Bukhari's death was cited as one of the reasons for the BJP pulling out of the alliance.
The decision also came days after the UN's human rights office called for an independent inquiry into human rights violations in both parts of Kashmir, run respectively by India and Pakistan.
