Delimitation Commission Proposes 6 More Assembly Seats for Jammu, 1 for Kashmir; Valley Parties Oppose Plan

The Delimitation Commission, set up to redraw the constituencies under Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, has come up with the first draft of its proposal, recommending six additional seats for Jammu region and one for Kashmir Valley.

Sources told News18 that this proposal would take the total Assembly seats for Jammu region to 43 and for Kashmir to 47, adding that nine seats have been proposed for Scheduled Tribes and seven for Scheduled Castes.

“The proposal was shared with associate members by the commission. The members have to submit their response to the proposal by December 31,” a source told News18, adding that the associate members in their response could give details of how and from where the new seats can be carved out.

The Delimitation Commission is headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is an ex-officio member of the panel.

Post the J&K Reorganisation Act, the Union Territory’s Assembly will have 90 seats, with 24 reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Before August 5, 2019 – when J&K’s special status was revoked and the state bifurcated into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh – the Valley had 46 MLAs while Jammu had 35. Four seats were allocated to Ladakh.

The Delimitation Commission’s proposal has already led to sharp reactions, with Valley-based parties cutting across political lines opposing it and Jammu parties, led by the BJP, supporting it.

The Valley-based parties have said that delimitation should be on the basis of 2011 Census as per which the Valley had a population of 80 lakh, while Jammu had 60 lakh people. The BJP has alleged that the 2011 Census figures were faulty and has demanded that the “regional imbalance be corrected”.

Minister of State for PMO and MP from Udhampur Dr Jitendra Singh called the meeting cordial. “The document is very objectively done, and all associate members, irrespective of their party affiliations, appreciated the work done by the delimitation commission and also committed that in future also they would cooperate,” he said.

The National Conference had boycotted the first meeting of the commission but attended the meeting on Monday even as the PDP slammed it for doing so.

“National Conference members were there and they were also satisfied with the parameters being followed by the commission. There was no political pressure and everyone agreed,” Jitendra Singh said.

Asked about the PDP’s boycott of the commission on grounds of the exercise being “politically motivated”, Singh said, “That amounts to abusing the sanctity and propriety of the Constitution of India which no mature politician should do.”

While Singh said that the National Conference delegation, led by Dr Farooq Abdullah, expressed satisfaction at the proceedings, party leader and former CM Omar Abdullah slammed the proposal.

“The draft recommendation of the J&K delimitation commission is unacceptable. The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with 6 going to Jammu & only 1 to Kashmir is not justified by the data of the 2011 census. It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data which should have been its only consideration. Contrary to the promised ‘scientific approach’ it’s a political approach,” he said.

Omar Abdullah’s tweet came after Valley parties like the PDP questioned the National Conference’s decision to attend the Delimitation Commission meeting on Monday.

“This commission has been created simply to serve BJPs political interests by dividing people along religious & regional lines. The real game plan is to install a government in J&K which will legitimise the illegal & unconstitutional decisions of August 2019,” PDP chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted.

The National Conference has said it will respond to the draft in 7-10 days.

“It is at the draft stage. We will respond to this draft in the next seven to 10 days. We have also conveyed our concern to the commission that the distribution is not right, and it is a matter of concern. They asked us to give our response in writing,” party MP Hasnain Masoodi said.

“We also conveyed that this whole exercise is against constitutional values. The chairperson told us that the panel’s recommendation will be subject to the outcome of the Supreme Court verdict pending in related cases. They told us that the process is in accordance with the 2011 Census, but we contested saying that the facts and figures indicate something else and it calls for increase of seats in the Valley rather than in Jammu,” Masoodi added.

Parties like the Apni Party and the People’s Conference also slammed the proposal of the Delimitation Commission. “This is out-rightly unacceptable to us. We demand a fair delimitation exercise without any bias, taking population and districts as the base,” Apni Party said. The BJP ally has demanded intervention from the Union government.

Elections in Jammu and Kashmir are expected once the Delimitation Commission submits its final report.

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