Delimitation Commission in Jammu and Kashmir today: The commission will visit on the 13th day just after the PM’s meeting, will hold a meeting with political parties; All parties will be involved except Mehbooba

Amidst the flurry of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Delimitation Commission team is reaching Jammu on a four-day visit on Tuesday. Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra will also be present with the team. The commission will be here till July 9.

The Delimitation Commission will meet the delegation of political parties in Jammu on July 8. He will know their suggestions and objections regarding the delimitation. Barring Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, almost all party leaders have informed to attend the meeting.

PDP President Mehbooba Mufti has already announced that she will not contest any elections until the special status of Jammu and Kashmir is restored. Overall, they are adamant on the demand to reinstate Article 370, which seems unlikely.

PDP leader Firdous Ahmed Tak said, “We have not yet taken any decision on attending the meeting. We are still holding discussions among the party leaders.

Gupkar Alliance gives personal decision freedom to allies
The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has given its allies consent to take an individual decision on the issue after a meeting held on Sunday evening failed to reach a consensus due to differing views.

PAGD spokesperson and senior CPI(M) leader Mohd Yusuf Tarigami said the alliance has agreed to meet the Delimitation Commission for the parties to take an individual decision. Tarigami said that the CPI(M) is also meeting the Delimitation Commission. We will share our views with the media after the meeting.

Let us inform that Gupkar is an alliance of 6 major political parties of the Valley, which include National Conference (NC), PDP, CPI(M), CPI, Awami National Conference and Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement.

National Conference said – the whole process should be transparent
Senior NC leader Nasir Wani said, “The party has decided to meet the Delimitation Commission. We believe that the process should be transparent. We are preparing a document which we will present before the commission and also share it with the media.

Earlier, in the meeting of the Delimitation Commission held on February 18, 3 National Conference MPs Dr. Farooq Abdullah, retired Justice Hassanian Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone stayed away from the meeting, while BJP MPs Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma participated. There were apprehensions among the leaders of the National Conference that the commission may increase the assembly seats in the Jammu region and ignore Kashmir.

BJP in favor of increasing the representation of Jammu
The state BJP is demanding more representation for Jammu in the assembly. Party’s state general secretary Ashok Kaul said, “We don’t want the same mistake to happen in the past. We want all the regions to get their share in the assembly constituencies on the basis of population, area and connectivity.

Congress said – give proper time to the commission for delimitation
The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) also announced that it would send its delegation before the Delimitation Commission. Congress said in a statement that due time should be given to all remote areas for better understanding of the requirements and norms for delimitation of the Commission. In which parameters such as population, area, geography and connectivity are included.

There should be no emphasis on partition for political gains
Other parties like People’s Conference, Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party have also agreed to participate in the meeting. Bukhari says]“Apna party has already done its homework on the entire exercise of delimitation and has decided to place its stand before the commission on adjustment of boundaries and details of delimitation of assembly constituencies. We feel that division of an area should not be insisted upon for political gains.

On June 24, PM Modi had a meeting with the leaders of the Valley
On June 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with 14 top leaders of the Union Territory in Delhi. Then Modi had clearly said that the distance of the heart from Delhi has to be reduced. The leaders of all the parties, including the Congress and the National Conference, who attended the meeting, had described the talks as better. However, after coming out of the meeting, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti appeared adamant on her demand to reinstate Article 370.

The ongoing exercise to increase 7 seats
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, 7 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly will be increased. After the delimitation, the assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir will increase from 83 to 90. Four seats of Ladakh will not be included as it has been made a separate union territory.

Before 5 August 2019, there were 107 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, including 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and 4 in Ladakh. Of these, 24 were reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK). That is, before August 2019, voting was done on only 83 seats here.

Target to complete the delimitation before 5th March 2022
A three-member Delimitation Commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was appointed in February 2020. The commission was entrusted with the task of delimitation of the electoral constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir and four northeastern states- Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland last year.

The commission will submit a report to the central government. Only after that the decision to hold elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be taken. It is being told that the delimitation work in Jammu and Kashmir will be completed before March 5, 2022. After this, elections are likely to be held in the state.