Over five months after the central government abrogated the Article 370 and the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was brought under an unprecedented security clampdown resulting in complete suspension of any political activity, the signs of thaw have finally appeared at the Raj Bhawan. On January 7, Monday, a delegation of former lawmakers of Jammu and Kashmir led by former minister and industrialist Syed Altaf Bukhari  called on the Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and submitted a memorandum of demands which include safeguards for protecting the rights of locals over land and government jobs. A day after the meeting, an advertisement signed by Bukhari among other seven members who met the LG appeared in some local dailies. The ad contains the memorandum of demands made by Bukhari-led delegation before the LG which includes restoration of JK’s statehood, exclusive rights of locals over land and government jobs, release of prisoners, withdrawal of cases filed in the aftermath of special status abrogation on August 5, compensation for farmers hit by the recent and untimely seasonal changes, addressing the issue of unemployment in J&K, and relief for traders and transporters hit by the spontaneous shutdown since August 5. Interestingly, the memorandum has also sought the intervention of the central government in setting up more power projects in Kashmir under the Public-Private Partnership model, a demand that was turned down by the ruling party when it was in a coalition with the PDP in J&K. Many political observers are watching with caution the meeting of Bukhari-led group of former and current PDP leaders (and the odd-man out in the form of Ghulam Hassan Mir) as a step towards the emergence of Third Front which is going to change the political and economic climate of Jammu and Kashmir. According to unnamed sources in media reports, this ‘Third Front’ is a loosely knit alliance of former lawmakers, important public figures and, according to one report, even a journalist, who are going to come together for the noble cause of ‘serving’ the people of Kashmir who have been ‘deceived by their own’ in the past three decades of turmoil. This is in line with the ruling party’s narrative that the “two dynasties” have destroyed Jammu and Kashmir and that there was a need for encouraging and grooming alterative political forces. With political activity gaining momentum in the Valley, can the “two dynasties” afford to remain absent from action?