Delimitation Commission proposes six seats for Jammu, one for Kashmir valley

If the recommendations are implemented, the Jammu region will have 43 seats while the Kashmir valley to witness 47 seats.   

The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission suggested six more seats for the Jammu area and one for the Kashmir valley. On Monday, the 5-member panel met in the national capital, proposed nine seats for the scheduled tribes and seven for the scheduled castes and asked the associate members to submit their suggestions by December 31 this year. 

The panel consists of two BJP Lok Sabha members — Jugal Kishore and Jitendra Singh and remaining from the National Conference, including its chief  Farooq Abdullah, Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone.  If the recommendations are implemented, the Jammu region will have 43 seats while the Kashmir valley to witness 47 seats. 

Ranjana Desai, a retired Supreme Court judge, chairs the panel, which also includes top Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as an ex-officio member and the chief electoral officer of Jammu and Kashmir. As per the mandate, the panel has to redraw the boundaries and create a new constituency by March 6 next year.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has spoken out against the recommendations of the Delimitation Panel. He stated that the J&K delimitation commission's draught suggestion is unacceptable. He went on to say that the distribution of newly constituted assembly constituencies, with six going to Jammu and only one going to Kashmir, is not supported by statistics from the 2011 census. Furthermore, Abdullah expressed his disappointment that the panel seemed to have let the BJP's political purpose dictate its recommendations rather than the statistics, which should have been its exclusive priority. 'Unlike the promised scientific approach,' it is a political approach,' he noted.

In her tweet, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti stated that her concerns regarding the Delimitation Commission were not unfounded. They aim to set people against one other by disregarding the population census and proposing six seats for one area and one for Kashmir. She said that the commission was formed solely to support the BJP's electoral objectives by dividing people along religious and geographical lines.