New Delhi/IBNS: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has been conferred with a power to nominate five members to the assembly which has sparked a massive controversy ahead of the counting of votes on Tuesday.

The Congress, its ally National Conference, and Mehbooba Mufti's Peoples' Democratic Party have stated that providing such powers to the Lieutenant Governor is a subversion of the people's mandate.

They are of the view that this power would be used by the BJP.

The exit polls have predicted a fractured mandate but maintained that the Congress-National Conference alliance is far ahead in the race.

The BJP, which went solo in the election, has never ruled Jammu and Kashmir on its own.

In the 2014 election, it formed a government with the PDP and pulled out of the alliance in 2018.

The next year, the BJP-led Centre scrapped the Constitution's Article 370 which gave Jammu and Kashmir its special status and divided the state into two Union Territories. This is the first assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir in a decade.

The non-BJP parties now contend that the special power granted to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha gives the BJP a shot at forming a government in the erstwhile state.