Pressure groups began to jostle for representation with the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened the all-party meet to discuss his roadmap for the Union Territory. At the nub of this competition is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s supposedly ideological dream of having a Hindu chief minister in J&K, where, after its bifurcation in 2019, Muslims constitute 66.88 per cent and Hindus 28.84 per cent of the population.

On March 26, senior BJP and Kashmiri Pandit leader Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo led a delegation to meet the Delimitation Commission on its invitation. Their suggestion to the Commission echoed Chrungoo’s article in the Organiser, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece. Subsequently, in the Daily Excelsior, Chrungoo disclosed they had demanded five seats to be reserved in Kashmir Division – three for Kashmiri Pandits, one for Sikhs, and one for non-Kashmiri-speaking Hindus.