Jammu and Kashmir Election Result: Why L-G's powers to nominate members to House has left Opposition worried 

The J&K Reorganisation Act was cleared in 2019 by Parliament. After an amendment in 2023, it allowed the L-G to nominate five members - two women, two from the migrant community and one from POJK refugees. They are supposed to be nominated before the first sitting of the House and can vote, just like elected members, in a test of majority. The Act is modelled on the Puducherry assembly where three nominated members function at par with elected MLAs and have voting rights. However, the Act does not mention anything on the nominated members' voting rights during "government formation or vote of no confidence".

Impact of L-G’s decision on House strength

The addition of the five nominated members, who will have the same powers and voting rights as other MLAs, would take the total J&K House strength to 95 and push the majority mark to 48. According to exit polls released on Saturday evening, no party is likely to reach the majority mark alone.  Since the L-G is a nominee of the Centre, National Conference and Congress are worried he may use the provision to help BJP in the case of a hung assembly. Hence, they are claiming that the L-G can exercise powers only with the consultation of the Council of Ministers.

What do parties say?

The NC’s state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar told The Indian Express: “As a precedent, this (the nomination) has to be done by the elected government, not by somebody who is himself a nominated person, in this case, the L-G.”

However, BJP's Sunil Sethi said this law is very clear right from 2019. “Political parties objecting to powers of nominated members have neither read the Constitution nor the J&K Reorganisation Act. If they have a problem with this, they should not have participated in elections,” he told Economic Times. He further said that J&K is a UT and not a state anymore.

Meanwhile, senior PDP leader Mehboob Beig said that nomination of members without a Council of Ministers being in place would mean “the BJP disrespecting or diluting the mandate of the people”.