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Will NC join J&K delimitation panel meetings? Farooq Abdullah may take a call today
The National Conference held an internal meeting on Saturday over the question of participating in the Delimitation Commission proceedings, news agency PTI cited a party leader as saying, without naming him.
The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (NC) -- a member of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) -- may on Sunday take a call on the party's participation in the proceedings of the Delimitation Commission, tasked to carve out new constituencies in the Union territory. News agency PTI reported, citing an unnamed NC leader, that the final decision regarding this rests with party president Farooq Abdullah, who will soon be conveying the official party line.
“The NC president will take the final call on the issue most likely tomorrow as he has been authorised by the party. He may then announce the decision himself,” the leader told the news agency a day ago.
The Delimitation Commission will be visiting the Union territory next week, for which it has invited leaders of all national, regional, and registered political parties of J&K for separate meetings. The commission, which has nearly nine months left to complete the exercise of carving out new constituencies, will also reserve separate constituencies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the first time in J&K.
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The National Conference held an internal meeting on Saturday over the question of participating in the Delimitation Commission proceedings, the party leader said. “The meetings took place today where the issue of the participation in the exercise was discussed," PTI quoted the NC leader, without naming him. "The party leaders gave their inputs and those inputs will be shared with the party high command.”
The two meetings over participation in commission proceedings were held at the National Conference headquarters in Srinagar, under the chairmanship of Ali Mohammad Sagar, the party's general secretary, and Nasir Aslam Wani, the provincial party president of Kashmir. Suggestions regarding the matter were taken from all the party leaders and later conveyed to NC president Farooq Abdullah, the leader said.
Also Read | Political parties in a quandary over meeting delimitation panel
The Delimitation Commission, which was constituted in March 2020 to redraw the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of J&K, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland, is headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai. Chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and election commissioners of J&K and the three states are ex-officio members of the commission.
The issue of delimitation was discussed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with political leaders from J&K last week. Modi had stressed that the delimitation exercise was required to happen quickly so that polls can be held.
