The Delimitation Commission, under the chairpersonship of Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai and in the presence of Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra on Wednesday decided to visit Jammu and Kashmir from July 6 to July 9, initiating the first steps towards holding Assembly elections in the union territory.
The Commission, during the four-day visit, will interact with political parties, public representatives and union territory administration officials, including District Election Officers and Deputy Commissioners of the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir. The exercise, according to a statement from the Election Commission, will be aimed at gathering first-hand information and inputs concerning the on-going process of delimitation as mandated under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
The Delimitation Commission was constituted in March 2020 and its term was extended by another year in March 2021 in view of the ongoing pandemic. Besides Desai and Chandra, the Commission comprises the State Election Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir. It also has five associate members nominated by the Lok Sabha Speaker. It has held a series of meetings related to data and maps of the districts and constituencies related to Census 2011. Earlier, it had invited all associate members for interaction, and two of them had taken part in the meeting.
A number of representations have been received by the Commission on various aspects concerning the delimitation from civil society members and the public of the union territory.
As per the statement, the Commission has taken note of all the suggestions and directed that these may be deliberated further in the context of ground realities concerning delimitation.
The decision of the Commission to visit Jammu and Kashmir comes in the backdrop of the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently with political parties from the union territory. The political players in J&K are keen on Assembly elections taking place since it will mean political activity resuming after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. After the PDP and the BJP had parted ways in June 2018, the Mehbooba Mufti government had lost majority, and was put under Governor's rule. An election would also mean that the administration of the state would come into the hands of local representatives.
