Jammu, Aug 20 (IANS): Congress leader and Jammu and Kashmir Public Health Engineering (PHE) Minister, Sham Lal Sharma said Wednesday that the next chief minister of the state should be a Hindu.

Addressing a Congress youth rally in Jammu, Sharma asked them to have a new slogan during the forthcoming assembly elections.

"You must fight for a Hindu chief minister for the state. You should also raise your voice for a regional council for the Jammu region", Sharma said.

Sharma said if a person belonging to a minority community that constitutes just 2 percent of the population of the country can be the prime minister for ten years, why cannot a Hindu be the chief minister of J&K, where Hindus form the largest minority.

He also asked how can Jammu get justice when out of 7000 employees in the state civil secretariat, just 200 belong to Jammu.

Sharma's demand for a Hindu chief minister comes in the wake of heavy polarisation between communities in the Hindu majority Jammu region of the state during the Lok Sabha election in which the BJP won both seats from the region.

Since the country's Independence in 1947, J&K has traditionally had Muslim chief ministers since this is the only Muslim majority state of the country.