A day before the counting of votes in Jammu and Kashmir, BJP leader Sofi Yousuf has stirred a controversy by announcing the names of five party leaders he claimed have been nominated as MLAs by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha.

The revelation has heightened tensions, prompting Kashmir leaders to argue that the BJP-led central government is intent on undermining the Assembly elections, the first in a decade.

BJP vice-president Yousuf said his party was running the government at the Centre, which gave it the right to nominate MLAs. “All of them are ours. The central government is ours in Delhi. As the government at the Centre is ours, all the names (of the nominated MLAs) will be from the BJP,” he told a media outlet.

“They include Ashok Koul, state general secretary (organisation); Rajini Sethi, our former president of the Mahila Morcha; Dr Farida Khan, our state secretary; Sunil Sethi, the chairman of the disciplinary committee and chief spokesman; and Rajini Geeta Thakur, our Mahila Morcha president.”

Yousuf claimed the higher authorities had approved the names.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Rainadefended the LG’s authority to nominate MLAs, asserting that it is constitutional and permissible under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act. Raina accused the Congress of igniting a propaganda against the nominated MLAs.

“In the Jammu and Kashmir elections, the Congress and other opposing parties are expected to lose. This is why the Congress is creating propaganda and conspiring against the five nominated MLAs who will be elected under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act,” he said.

There is speculation that Sinha plans to nominate five MLAs ahead of government formation in Jammu and Kashmir to give the BJP an edge.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, empowered the lieutenant governor to nominate two women MLAs if the gender was not adequately represented in the House. An amendment last year provided for another three nominated MLAs from the Kashmiri migrantcommunities and displaced people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Iltija Mufti, media adviser and daughter of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, wrote on X: “All the five MLAs nominated by the LG are BJP members or associated with the party. Brazen pre-result rigging and shameful manipulation. Might as well have nominated all 90 members instead. Why even hold elections? 1987s stolen election took J&K to the brink. Yet no lessons learnt?.”

Former chief minister Farooq Abdullah asked the LG not to back the move.

“When the government is in power, that government has the right to nominate MLAs. The LG has to forward that (accept that) and say yes,” he said.