J&K Closes Delimitation Chapter, Opens Gates For Elections

With the delimitation commission coming up with its final report ending an exercise to delimit constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, it has opened the chances of elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The Commission apart from the population has taken the “peculiar geo-cultural landscape of J&K, competing political aspirations of the geographically and culturally distinctive regions; vast differences in population density between districts” into consideration while delimiting constituencies. 

At the same time General Officer Commanding in Chief (GoC-In-C), Northern Command, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi has said that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has seen a “tremendous improvement and stabilisation” since August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated and Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two Union Territories.

While political parties continue to describe the Delimitation Commission as an extension of the BJP, they are also hopeful that in the coming elections the BJP will pay price for it.

“We have seen the final recommendations of the Delimitation Commission. We are studying the implications of these recommendations for individual assembly constituencies. No amount of gerrymandering will change the ground reality which is that whenever elections are held the voter will punish the BJP & it’s proxies for what they have done to J&K over the last 4 years,” National Conference said.

The J&K Assembly was dissolved in November 2018 and the region was first under Governor’s rule and now under the President’s rule since June 2018. The government has been saying the elections in J&K will be held after the Delimitation Commission completes its exercise and gives its report.  Now the final report is out, the government has alternative but to hold elections, political observers here say.

Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti described the delimitation commission as an extension of the BJP. “The Commission ignored population as criteria to delimit the constituencies and adopted their own methods,” Mehbooba said. She said the delimitation commission was part of exercise that was carried by BJP on August 5, 2019 to disempower the people of J&K.

The Delimitation Commission, headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, (a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India), and Sushil Chandra, (Chief Election Commissioner) and K. K. Sharma, (State Election Commissioner, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir), as Ex Officio members of the Delimitation Commission, met today to finalise the Delimitation order for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.  The Gazette notification for the same has also been published today.

Now out of the 90 Assembly Constituencies in the region, 43 will be part of Jammu and 47 for Kashmir region.  Nine seats have been reserved for STs, out of which six are in Jammu region and three are in the Valley.

There are five Parliamentary Constituencies in the region. The Delimitation Commission has seen the Jammu & Kashmir region as one single unit. “Therefore, one of the Parliamentary Constituency has been carved out combining Anantnag region in the Valley and Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu region. By this reorganisation each Parliamentary Constituency will have equal number of 18 Assembly Constituencies each,” the order says.

Before August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated, the State of Jammu and Kashmir had 111 seats including 24 reserved for PoK and elections were held for 87 seats. With the creation of Ladakh as Union Territory, four seats of the region were reduced and the Assembly was left with 83 seats. In the previous Assembly, Kashmir had 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh four.

 Last Delimitation Commission was set up in 1995 with Justice (Retd) K K Gupta as its Chairman when the State was under the President’s rule. Gupta Commission had increased J&K’s Assembly seats from 76 to the present 87. Of 76 seats, Jammu had 32, Kashmir 42 and Ladakh 2.  Of 87 seats of J&K Assembly, Kashmir has 46 seats, Jammu 37 and four in the Ladakh division.