Delimitation panel proposes 6 additional Assembly seats for Jammu, 1 for Kashmir

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

The Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir today met here with its five associate members and shared with them the first draft on proposals for allocation of Assembly seats in the Jammu and Kashmir regions, besides making provisions for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

According to sources, the delimitation panel proposed six additional seats for the Jammu region and one for the Kashmir valley. These would take the total number of seats in the Jammu region to 43 and in the Kashmir region to 47, they said, adding that 24 PoK seats would remain vacant. The Kashmir division currently has 46 seats and Jammu 37 seats.

The sources also said that the panel had proposed that nine seats should be reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and seven for Scheduled Castes (SCs). The five associate members, including three National Conference MPs and two BJP MPs, have been requested to respond to the proposals by December 31.

However, informally, parties such as the NC have termed the proposals “unacceptable” and accused the delimitation panel of allowing the “political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations”.

Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, Altaf Bukhari’s Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party and Sajjad Lone’s People’s Conference, which is considered supportive towards the BJP, also protested strongly against the commission’s draft recommendations which could alter the electoral map of J&K. The commission headed by former Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Desai held its second meeting here on Monday. Besides the five LS members from J&K as its associate members, the panel includes Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as ex-officio member.

Three Lok Sabha members of the NC, including party president and former CM Farooq Abdullah, attended the commission meeting for the first time. Two BJP MPs, including Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh, were also present.

Farooq, who is also the chairman of the five-party People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), said he would brief the grouping as well as his party colleagues of the deliberations of the commission.

“The meeting took place in a cordial manner and we all were explained the method adopted for coming to the conclusion,” Farooq said, adding that “I will discuss with my senior party leaders before sending the NC’s views to the commission.”

In a strong reaction, NC vice-president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “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…. The distribution is not justified by the data of the 2011 census.”

The J&K Apni Party, headed by former minister Altaf Bukhari, also reportedly rejected the proposals. “This is unacceptable to us. The Apni Party demands a fair delimitation exercise without any bias, taking population and districts as the base. We want the Government of India to intervene,” he said.

PDP president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that the commission had been “created simply to serve BJP’s political interests by dividing people along religious and regional lines. The real game plan is to install a government in J&K which will legitimise the illegal and unconstitutional decisions of August 2019”.

“My apprehensions about the Delimitation Commission weren’t misplaced. They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census,” the former CM said.

However, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the commission had come out with a document that was objectively prepared. “All associate members regardless of the parties appreciated the work done by the commission. NC members were also satisfied by the parameters followed,” he said.

The commission was set up in February 2020 after the passage of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill in Parliament in August 2019.

Associate members to respond by Dec 31

• 5 associate members of the panel, including 3 NC MPs and 2 BJP MPs, have been told to respond by Dec 31
• The commission, set up in Feb 2020, is tasked with redrawing parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in UT

SEAT MATH

Total Assembly seats: 114

Jammu: 37+6= 43

Kashmir: 46+1=47

PoK: 24 (unchanged)

Ladakh now UT

Before reorganisation

Total Assembly seats: 111

Jammu: 37 | Kashmir: 46 | Ladakh: 4 | PoK: 24

It’s unacceptable

Panel has allowed BJP’s political agenda to dictate proposals. Omar Abdullah, NC

My apprehensions weren’t misplaced. Mehbooba Mufti, PDP Chief

All associate members, including NC leaders, were satisfied. Jitendra Singh, MOS