MHA assures completion of delimitation at earliest in J&K
Asserting that the delimitation of Assembly and Parliament constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir will be completed as early as possible, Minister of State (MoS) for Home Nityanand Rai said on Tuesday that the Delimitation Commission held extensive consultation with various stakeholders in the Union Territory.
The Government has constituted a Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Replying to MP Satyadev Pachauri’s question, Rai informed Lok Sabha, “The delimitation Commission has been formed under Justice (Retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai. The Commission has held extensive consultation with various stakeholders like State Election Commissioner of UT of Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Secretary, Registrar General of India, Surveyor General of India, District Election Officers of all 20 districts. The purpose is the delimitation of Assembly and Parliament constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”
The endeavor of the Commission is to complete the said exercise as early as possible, he said.
He further said, “The commission visited various places in Jammu and Kashmir from July 6 to 9, 2021 to receive inputs from the stakeholders.”
Moreover, sources that the Delimitation final draft is ready and will soon be in the public domain, likely in the month of February next year.
Notably, on August 5, 2019, the Central government revoked the special status under Article 370 and 35-A to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated it into two Union Territories—the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh.
They said that the political activities have also increased manifold with leaders and representatives of different parties seen busy addressing public gatherings, issuing statements vis-a-vis indulging into blame game over revocation of Article 370.
“The draft has been prepared and the commission is expected to submit it to the central government by the end of February 2022,” sources said and added that thereafter in the next two months, possibly in May-June, the election process for the formation of the Assembly will also be completed.
“Jammu is expected to get seven more seats after the delimitation,” sources added.
They said that the delimitation process is to be completed before the constitution of the assembly and for this the central government has constituted a delimitation commission under the chairmanship of former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai.
The tenure of the commission will end in March 2022.
Sources said that the commission has prepared the draft and will soon be shared with the five Member Parliaments of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone, besides Jugal Kishore Sharma and Dr. Jitendra Singh.
“After seeking suggestions from all the five MPs on the draft, the final document will be submitted to the central government and this whole exercise is expected to be completed by February 2022,” they said.
“The Election Commission of India will take a final call on when and in how many phases the elections will be held but the central government has reportedly asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration and security agencies to be prepared for the election process,” they said.
In the pre-August 5, 2019 situation, elections were held in 87 assembly constituencies including Ladakh and the 24 seats were reserved for the Pakistan-occupied-Jammu and Kashmir.
“With Ladakh becoming a separate union territory after the Reorganization Act, Jammu and Kashmir has 107 assembly seats,” sources said, adding that the number of assembly constituencies is to be increased to 90 by delimitation of the remaining 83 assembly constituencies.
According to sources, under the ongoing process of delimitation, nearly seven seats are expected to increase in Jammu division and one to two seats in Kashmir.
Previously, there were 36 seats in Jammu and 47 seats in Kashmir province.
However, the political parties have swung into action apprehending that Assembly elections may be announced anytime by the Election Commission of India.
Moreover the political stalwarts like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti, Sajjad Lone, Altaf Bukhari¸ Harsh Dev Singh and many others were on the same page seeking conduct of Assembly elections as the earliest and restore full statehood to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
