SRINAGAR, India—The top elected leader of Indian Kashmir resigned on Monday after a key ally withdrew support for his government over a controversial transfer of land to a Hindu shrine trust.
The government land move sparked some of the biggest protests from Muslims since a separatist movement broke out in the region about two decades ago. At least six people were killed.
"I am going to governor's office to resign," Ghulam Nabi Azad, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state and a member of the ruling Congress party, told state lawmakers.
Protesters said by granting land to a Hindu shrine trust the government was trying to change the demography of mainly-Hindu India's only Muslim majority state.
The government rescinded its decision in the face of the huge protests, but the People's Democratic Party (PDP), a coalition partner, pulled out and reduced the government to a minority.
The state governor, who had accepted the resignation, had earlier asked Azad to prove his majority in the state assembly.
Elections in Kashmir, where thousands of people have been killed since 1989, are due by November.
While the government's decision to revoke the land transfer has cooled off protests in Kashmir, people in Jammu, the state's Hindu majority area, have accused the government of kowtowing to Muslims.
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