On Tuesday, sources told The Daily Guardian that after the delimitation process, seven seats in the J&K Legislative Assembly will increase. The Delimitation Commission headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is working on the delimitation of assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir.
All the District Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir have already provided all the information related to their jurisdiction to the Delimitation Commission, the sources said. The Commission has received detailed information about the geographical conditions of the districts and the constituencies falling in them, the density of population, the status of basic facilities, the number of voters, and myriad other facts. District Deputy Commissioners have also given their suggestions regarding rationalization of constituencies.
Last year, on the eve of Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said elections would be held in J&K after the delimitation process in the Union Territory was over. Delimitation, he said, is crucial for kicking off the political process in J&K.
Before the bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, there were 111 seats in the Legislative Assembly— 24 seats in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir with 83 in Jammu and Kashmir division, and 4 in Ladakh division. Now after the delimitation, the four seats of Ladakh will be removed, creating seven new areas, which means, 114 seats will be in the Legislative Assembly, and out of which elections can be held on 90 at present, as 24 seats are reserved for PoK.
The Daily Guardian spoke to a historian who told that earlier in 1995 there was delimitation of areas for the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in which 75 seats were increased to 87. But then the delimitation was done in an arbitrary and partisan manner, bypassing the population-voter and geographical balance and proportion. That is, despite the high population of Jammu, the seats were kept less, whereas in the valley more seats for less population. So that the control of the government remains with the people of the valley.
The Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai was formed in March last year to carve out more Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in J&K. The commission’s term was extended by one year in March this year.