The Central Government is set to amend the Jammu Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 to reserve three vacancies in the Jammu Kashmir Assembly.
While two berths would be kept for “migrants,” one berth would be reserved exclusively for displaced individuals, those who migrated from portions of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 and are presently on the other side of the LoC, according to media reports.
The Jammu Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, has been introduced in the Lok Sabha for consideration. Reservations are being made in order to “protect their political rights as well as their overall social and economic development.”
According to the new changes, two seats would be designated for ‘Kashmiri Migrants,’ and one seat will be reserved for displaced persons from Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK). LG of the region will nominate these members.
Following delimitation, the Jammu Kashmir assembly has 114 seats, including 24 reserved for territories under Pakistan Administered Kashmir.
This leaves 90 seats up for grabs, with 47 in Kashmir and 43 in Jammu. These nine seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and no other candidates will be allowed to run. Similarly, seven berths are set aside for Schedule Castes.
There will now be reservations inside the legislature following the election. According to one proposed modification, the LG may appoint no more than two members, one of whom must be a woman “from the community of Kashmiri Migrants.”
In addition, he will name “one member from displaced persons from Pakistan-administered Kashmir” to the Assembly.
As per experts, these nominations that will expand the size of Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly may hold the key to government formation in the future.
“In case of hung assembly, the seats might hold an important key to the government formation and nobody is ignorant to the fact who the members will be,” said a former legislator on condition of anonymity.
He said that the Lieutenant governor who himself is nominated will hold the key to government formation in Jammu Kashmir.