The Delimitation Commission set up by the central Government to redraw the seats in Jammu Kashmir submitted its final report on Thursday afternoon.
The commission has recommended increasing the number of Assembly seats to ninety (90) out of which Kashmir has got an addition of one while the Jammu region will have 43 seats instead of 37, an increase of 6 seats.
According to the 2011 census shows the population of Kashmir as 69,07,623, Jammu has population has a total population of 53,50,811.
In the Kashmir valley, the new seat is likely to come up north Kashmir’s Kupwara district and in Jammu, the six new Assembly constituencies are expected to be carved out from Kishtwar, Doda, Rajouri, Udhampur, Kathua, and Samba districts.
Sources told The Kashmiriyat that there have been no major changes in the final report from the initial report submitted by the commission earlier this year. The commission had received dozens of objections from the public and regional political parties.
“Now the election commission comes to the front and it may take them three to four months to prepare the new electoral roll for Jammu Kashmir as per the fresh report. Only after that, the EC will take a call on holding assembly elections in the region,” they said.
The call for the elections will be taken taking into consideration the situation in the region. “There are other factors like the weather and agricultural season that will be taken into consideration,” they said.
It is likely that the polls will be held in Jammu Kashmir later this year along with Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
The commission headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was established on March 6, 2020, and given two extensions. The last extension was granted on March 04, 2022.
Jammu Kashmir regional parties have denounced the recommendations of the commission calling them “BJP-friendly.”
Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party President, Mehbooba Mufti said that the delimitation commission proposal has not come as a surprise and it is another onslaught on the democracy in Jammu Kashmir. ” PDP was always suspicious and the delimitation commission is basically the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) agenda. BJP wants to strengthen its constituencies. They want to disempower the majority communities be it in Rajouri, Chenab valley,” she said.
Reacting to the proposals of the commission, the National Conference chief and Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) chief Dr Farooq Abdullah had said that Delimitation Commission’s fresh proposal has increased alienation in Jammu Kashmir and the Panel has worked in favour of BJP only under a “planned strategy.”
Jammu based National Panthers Party chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh accused the Delimitation Commission of having succumbed to the dictates of the BJP in its recommendations for re-adjustment of territorial boundaries of Assembly constituencies.