The Delimitation Commission’s draft proposing six additional seats for Jammu and one for Kashmir has triggered a row in the Union Territory with NC, PDP and People’s Conference terming the proposal as “unacceptable”.
The Commission on Monday shared the draft proposal with its five associate members and MPs from J&K—three from NC and two from BJP—in Delhi.
The draft has also proposed nine seats for Scheduled Castes (SC) and seven for Scheduled Tribes (ST).
According to the 2011 Census, Muslims in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir constitute a majority with 68 per cent.
Kashmir constitutes 56.2 per cent of the total population of 1.25 crore and Jammu 43.8 per cent. The seat share of Kashmir was 55.4 per cent and that of Jammu 44.6 per cent. Once the draft proposal is implemented, Kashmir’s seat share will come down to 52.2 per cent while Jammu’s will rise to 47.8 per cent.
This has riled up the political parties in Kashmir.
“It is deeply disappointing that the commission appears to have allowed the political agenda of the BJP to dictate its recommendations rather than the data,’’ tweeted NC vice president Omar Abdullah. “The draft recommendation of the J&K Delimitation Commission is unacceptable. The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with six going to Jammu and only one to Kashmir is not justified by the data of 2011,” he said.
PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said the Commission was formed to serve BJP’s political interests by dividing people along religious and regional lines.
“My apprehensions about the Delimitation Commission were not displaced,’’ she tweeted. “They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census and proposing six seats for one region and only one for Kashmir.”
People’s Conference chief Sajad Gani Lone said the proposal smacks of a bias and is shocking for those who believe in democracy.
“The recommendations of the delimitation Commission are totally unacceptable. They reek of bias. What a shock for those who believe in democracy,” Lone tweeted.
The NC had initially refused to meet the Commission, claiming that the constitutional validity of the J&K Reorganisation Act under which the BJP set up the Commission is pending before the Supreme Court.
However, it later decided to meet the Commission, while asking the panel to declare its agenda.
Before J&K was split into two UTs, the erstwhile state had 87 seats in the assembly—46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and four in Ladakh. The J&K Assembly also has 24 seats vacant for Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on which election is not held.
With the addition of seven seats, the number of seats on which election in J&K will be held will increase to 90. Two women will be nominated as was the practice before.
Earlier, delimitation in J&K was done in 1963, 1973 and 1995 when the state was under President’s Rule.
The delimitation had been frozen by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly from 2001 till 2026. However, after the reading down of Article 370, the BJP ordered the formation of the Delimitation Commission.
