Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah launched an attack on opposition parties during his public address in the Jammu region on Tuesday, urging locals to "free Kashmir" from the rule of "three families".
His comments come as part of the buildup to the union territory elections scheduled to take place after November.
J&K state chiefs have either come from regional political parties or from the Indian National Congress Party, a fact highlighted by Shah during his rally.
"I want to appeal to you to free Jammu and Kashmir from the clutches of these three families and to make hands of Modi strong for betterment and welfare of Jammu and Kashmir,” the ruling BJP politician said.
The BJP is eyeing its chances of leading a government in the region after it was split into two centrally governed union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. In the past, several party politicians have remarked that the BJP would give the union territory its first-ever Hindu state chief.
During his rally, Shah said that just three political families used to rule the erstwhile state until 2019, but “now power is with 30,000 people” who were elected to local polls, referring to the Panchayat polls held in 2018 for control over local municipal bodies and councils.
Another local body election held in 2020 to the district development council, which was a contest between the Bhartiya Janata Party and PAGD, an alliance of regional parties advocating the return of the special autonomy, saw the latter win 110 seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 75 of the total 278 seats.
While the alliance won most of its seats in the Muslim majority Kashmir, BJP held sway in the Hindu majority Jammu division.
Shah also addressed a raging debate in J&K over the federal government’s plan to reserve government jobs for Pahari residents amid opposition from the Gujjars and Bakerwals tribal communities, which claim that the former does not form a tribe and hence is not eligible for reservation.
Shah claimed that the Gujjar and Bakerwals are being provoked and that Prime Minister Modi was in favor of giving reservations to the Paharis.