Delimitation Commission for J-K, 4 Northeast states notified

The Centre on Friday notified the setting up of a Delimitation Commission headed Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai to redraw the boundaries of Parliament and Assembly seats in the newly constituted union territory of Jammu and Kashmir as well as states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

The two other members of the panel are Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and the State Election Commissioner of the concerned UT or states, according to the notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice. The appointment of Justice Desai will be for a period of one year, it said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 provides for increasing the number of Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir by seven after a delimitation process.

The Act has earmarked a total of 107 seats for the whole of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, including areas in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

The State Assembly, which was dissolved with the bifurcation, had 87 seats with a six year tenure while the new Assembly will have a tenure of five years only.

Of the 107 seats, the Act said 24 seats falling in PoK will remain vacant and should not be be taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the Assembly. This would make the effective strength of the House at 83, including six seats under reserved category. Of the 87 seats in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, four fell in Ladakh.

The Act provided for increase in seats from 107 to 114 through a delimitation exercise and all the seven new ones will be created in the areas which are not occupied by Pakistan.

There has been demand for increase in number of seats in Jammu claiming that they are under-represented. When the Bill was passed, a section viewed the provisions for the delimitation exercise as part of BJP's plans to enable non-Muslims from Jammu region to become Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir, which has only seen Muslim Chief Ministers and help it to spread its wings in the state. Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad was the only Chief Minister from Jammu region.

As in the previous state Assembly, there is a provision for nominating two women to the new Assembly if the Lt Governor feels that they are not adequately represented.