Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir has brought delimitation and the much-awaited Assembly elections in the Union Territory back in focus. Elections in J&K have been due since 2018 when the BJP pulled out of the Mehbooba Mufti-led coalition government. Subsequent events further delayed the exercise. And now delimitation is a stumbling block. While delimitation refers to the redrawing of boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha constituency, the term has become controversial in Jammu and Kashmir because it is related to representation of Muslim-dominated Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated Jammu province in the Assembly. No delimitation has been conducted in J&K since 1995 when it was done under President’s rule. Then CM Farooq Abdullah, in 2002, froze the exercise till 2026.
Political parties like BJP have been fighting for greater representation for the Jammu region claiming that the freeze enforced in 2002 has done injustice to the region.
The current Delimitation Commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai was set up by the government in 2020. While it was supposed to complete its work by 5 March this year, the Covid-19 pandemic hampered the work. It has now been given an extension for one year.
The meetings conducted by the Commission so far were boycotted by the National Conference MPs Farooq Abdullah, Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone over abrogation of Article 370. But the recent statements from the National Conference top brass indicate that they have become flexible now and may attend the future meetings.
Kashmir-based political parties are apprehensive that the BJP government at the Centre may influence the working of the Commission, which otherwise is supposed to be an independent body.
Two main political parties from J&K, NC and PDP, are expecting the delimitation to be a fair exercise.