Srinagar: The Delimitation Commission set up by the Central government to redraw assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir is reportedly ready with its draft report on allocation and resizing of the constituencies including reserved seats.
The Commission, headed by Justice (Retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai, might share it during its meeting on December 20 in New Delhi with five associate members, who are member parliaments (MPs) from J&K.
The Commission is also close to the identification of seats reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs),” officials privy to the development told DH.
This will be the second meeting of the Commission with associate members. The first meeting on February 18 this year was boycotted by three NC members but attended by two BJP MPs.
Meanwhile, two associate members from the NC – Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi – have shot off a letter to the Panel on Sunday seeking the agenda of the meeting saying they have received an invitation without agenda.
Besides Masoodi and Lone, NC president Farooq Abdullah is also an associate member of the Commission while BJP has two associate members including Union minister Jitendra Singh and MP Jugal Kishore Sharma.
“We have sent a letter to the Delimitation Commission and we have asked them to make us aware of the agenda items and all the material concerning that (the agenda items),” Masoodi said.
The Commission has been mandated to delimit the constituencies of the Union Territory in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 and Delimitation Act, 2002, by the Union Ministry for Law and Justice on March 6, 2020.
However, with little work in a year, its term was extended by another year in March this year. Since it was constituted, the panel has made only one visit to J&K for four days from July 6-9 this year.
The erstwhile state of J&K had 87 seats in the assembly and six in Parliament, which got reduced to 83 and five, respectively, after it was bifurcated to make Ladakh a separate UT. So effectively, the seats will go up from 83 to 90 for J&K.
People and politicians in Kashmir view the exercise as a move to tilt the balance of power towards Jammu, by increasing the assembly seats in Jammu. However, in Jammu, it is being regarded as a move correcting Kashmir’s historical ‘dominance’ over Jammu.
Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have several times in the past stated that assembly polls in J&K will be held only after the completion of delimitation. (DH).
