Delimitation panel makes proposal public, seeks feedback till 21st

The Delimitation Commission on Monday published the proposal on the delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in J&K and has asked the public to submit their objections or suggestions before March 21.

The commission informed that it would visit J&K on March 28 and 29 for public sittings, during which the suggestions would be considered, after which it would produce its final report.

The commission has attached the detailed dissenting notes shared with it by the three National Conference Lok Sabha members -- Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi -- and a BJP Lok Sabha member, Jugal Kishore Sharma, from J&K, who are associate members of the commission.


The NC's joint dissent note has questioned and challenged the constitution of the panel, as the J&K Reorganisation Act passed on August 5-6, 2019 is under judicial scrutiny in the Supreme Court. They had expressed concern that the proposal would create void and wedge between the regions and communities. They said the commission had overlooked the basic population and geographical proximity in its proposal in various assembly and parliamentary segments.

The BJP MP had also raised the issue of renaming various constituencies in Jammu and redrawing the boundaries of some.

The commission has kept two Lok Sabha seats each for Jammu and Kashmir divisions, while the Anantnag-Poonch Lok Sabha seat spreads across the two divisions. There is no reserved seat in the five Lok Sabha seats.

The total number of assembly seats after the delimitation exercise will go up to 90 with a total increase of seven seats -- six in Jammu and one in Kashmir. This has narrowed the gap between the seats in the two divisions as Kashmir will have 47 seats while Jammu will have 43. In the new 90-member assembly as proposed by the commission, 16 seats have been reserved -- nine for ST and seven for SC -- of which, 13 are in the Jammu division --seven SCs and six STs.