Delimitation of J&K constituencies likely to be completed by July

The move has triggered fears in Kashmir that more seats would be given to Jammu region, which will influence who rules J&K as and when elections are conducted

The Delimitation Commission, which redraws constituency boundaries, is likely to finalize its report on Jammu and Kashmir by July with the Center set to extend the term of the Commission chairperson by another six months.

The Commission was set up by the Central government on 6 March 2020, to redraw parliamentary and assembly constituencies as per the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019. Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, chairperson of the Commission, whose one-year term will come to an end on March 5, is likely to get an extension of six months, sources said.

They said Desai is shortly visiting J&K to invite suggestions on delimitation and reservation of assembly constituencies in the Union Territory from the political parties.

“His (Desai’s) term is set to be extended on the ground that the Commission couldn’t complete its exercise within one-year-time mainly because of Covid-19 pandemic,” sources said and added the government is confident that the Commission will finalize its report in the next six months.

“In all likelihood, much-awaited assembly elections in J&K could be held by year-end,” sources said.

“The Commission is learnt to have used 2011 Census data for delimiting constituencies while geographical considerations for Jammu have also been taken into account.”

The Commission held its first meeting in New Delhi last week even though three of the five associate members from the UT boycotted it. National Conference MPs Farooq Abdullah, Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, all from Kashmir boycotted the meeting on the pretext that the party has challenged J&K Reorganization Act in the Supreme Court under which delimitation of the constituencies has been taken up.

According to the J&K Reorganisation Act, the number of seats in the UT’s assembly will be increased from 107 to 114. Out of these, 24 seats are in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. Thus, effectively, the number of assembly seats for which elections can be held will go up from 83 to 90. In the previous Assembly, Kashmir had 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh four.

The move has triggered fears in Kashmir that more seats would be given to the Jammu region, which will influence who rules J&K as and when elections are conducted.

Delimitation of the Assembly constituencies was last held in J&K in 1995 during the President’s Rule when seats of the erstwhile State Assembly were raised from 76 to 87.

A senior official told DH that after the delimitation there can be altogether different Assembly constituencies with different boundaries as it will not be binding on the Commission to stick to the segments, which existed in the previous Assembly.

The Scheduled Castes enjoyed reservations in the previous Assembly where seven constituencies were reserved for them, while Scheduled Tribes had been denied political reservations. “The STs will get political reservations for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.