Giving a new spin to the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly, Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik dropped a bombshell and claimed that "if I had looked at Delhi, I would have had to install Sajjad Lone government."

Later in the evening, however, he issued a clarification and said, "There was no pressure or any kind of intervention from the Centre in the entire matter and some news channels are misinterpreting the statement and putting them out of context."

On November 21, Malik dissolved the Legislative Assembly amid high drama, minutes after PDP president Mehbooba Mufti shot off a letter to him seeking time to gain support from her allies –National Conference and Congress and then stake claim to form government in J&K. Later, Lone also sent a letter staking his claim to the government with the support of BJP and 18 other unnamed MLAs".

In a gathering in Gwalior, he then said, "Aur phir ek bar clear kardo. Delhi ki taraf dekhta to Lone ki sarkar muj ko banana padte aur main ithas main beimaan admi ki tour pe jata. Lehaza main ne us mamle ko hi khatam kar diya. Jo gali denge, denge. Main conviced hoon main ne theek kaam kar diya. (If I would have looked up to Delhi then I had to install Lone's government and I would have gone down in the history as a dishonest man. I just ended the matter (by dissolving the house). Let them abuse me. But I am convinced that I did the right thing."

At the time, he explained that he was getting reports of horse-trading and threats to MLAs so he took the only possible resort.

On Tuesday, both National Conference and PDP hailed his courage. "Leaving aside the fax machine fiasco, good to see that governor Sb refused to take dictation from Delhi, rather opted for dissolution of assembly. This could be unprecedented," tweeted Mehbooba Mufti, former J&K Chief Minister.

Lone, however, said there has been a misrepresentation of facts and gross distortion of certain events that unfolded in J&K by some people and unfortunately, especially the Governor. "Whenever I said that I would stake a claim – it would be done under the ambit of a constitutional provision and would be totally legitimate. I don't know since when they have made constitutional provisions and solutions illegal – that is for the Governor to clarify," he said.