E-Paper
Delimitation exercise: Poll panel holds meeting with deputy magistrates of J&K
Political analysts feel that the exercise could be a precursor to the much-awaited resumption of political activities leading to the maiden assembly elections ever since the state of J&K was divested of its special status on August 5, 2019 and bifurcated into two UTs
Amid heightened political activity in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of PM’s all-party meet on Thursday, the election commission on Wednesday held deliberations with all 20 deputy magistrates of the UT via videoconferencing.
“It asked basic statistics like population, number of constituencies, patwar and halqas, geographical boundaries and topography,” said one of the deputy magistrates.
Political analysts feel that the exercise could be a precursor to the much-awaited resumption of political activities leading to the maiden assembly elections ever since the state of J&K was divested of its special status on August 5, 2019 and bifurcated into two UTs.
Professor Rekha Choudhary, former head of political sciences department at Jammu University, said, “Holding the all-party meet is a very good decision. I see it as a precursor to revival of political activity leading to the maiden assembly elections. Secondly, the forum could also be used to discuss restoration of statehood, an emotional issue for both Jammu and Kashmir regions, to which BJP government has also given its commitment. Thirdly and most importantly, Kashmir-centric parties are still reluctant on delimitation exercise. Though of late there were ample feelers from them to be a part of the delimitation exercise, the consensus still eludes the panel. I think the issue may figure at the forum.”
She, however, said that she didn’t see any remote possibility of all-party meet discussing Article 370 and 35-A because “they were the core ideological issues for the BJP.”
In July last year, the delimitation panel had sought substantial information from J&K administration in various formats like maps, statistics, Census 2011 figures, new tehsils, patwars and halqas.
Union law ministry has constituted a delimitation commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
Election commissioner Sushil Chandra and election commissioners of J&K besides four states are ex-officio members of the panel.
All five Lok Sabha MPs from Jammu and Kashmir – Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone from the National Conference and Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore from the BJP – have been nominated as ‘associate members’ of the commission to assist it in redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies.
According to Section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, the number of seats in the legislative assembly of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir will be increased from 107 to 114. Out of these, 24 seats are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The constituencies in the erstwhile state were last delimited in 1995 and the state assembly had then unanimously agreed upon putting freeze on any such exercise till 2026.
As per Census 2011, Jammu and Kashmir had a population of 12,541,302.
The erstwhile state of J&K that comprised Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh regions had six Lok Sabha seats — one in Ladakh, two in Jammu and three in Kashmir.
