Ahead of an all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, the Deputy Election Commissioner held a meeting with all Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan in which Deputy Commissioners took part virtually. The meeting was on delimitation of J&K Assembly constituencies which will make a way for elections in the region.
Discussion was in two parts. Ten Deputy Commissioners participated in the morning virtual meeting which started at between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm in which Deputy Commissioners of Jammu, Rajouri, Poonch, Samba Kupwara, Baramulla, Bandipora Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal participated. During the second session, Deputy Commissioners of Udhampur, Kishtwar, Doda, Ramban, Pulwama, Reasi, Kathua, Shopian, Anantnag and Kulgam joined the meeting.
Sources also say that during the meeting some Deputy Commissioners raised issues of overlapping one constituency with another. The Deputy Election Commissioner also sought details of constituencies reserved for the Scheduled Castes. He also sought details of the Scheduled Tribe population in Jammu & Kashmir as there will be one seat reserve for the ST category after delimitation.
All Deputy Commissioners took around 8-10 minutes each to share the details and put forth the administrative difficulties faced by them with regards to constituencies in their area.
Earlier the Election Commission was conducting elections on 83 seats of Jammu and Kashmir state, with 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The Jammu region with 10 districts was having 37 seats, whereas the Kashmir region with equal districts was having the upper hand with 46 seats. The Jammu region blames the past governments for the ‘political injustice’ with its people.
But now after the Centre passed the Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation bill in Parliament after bifurcation of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh into two Union Territories, the number of seats is going to be increased from 83 to 90.