Move indicates J&K poll not anytime soon

The Union Government has extended the term of the Delimitation Commission for another year. The commission was constituted to redraw the electoral constituencies in J&K and four northeastern states — Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. The extension has only been ordered for J&K.

The move indicates that the Assembly elections in the UT will not be held anytime soon, as according to the J&K Reorganisation Act the poll process would set in motion only after delimiting the constituencies.

The gazette notification, issued by the Ministry of Law & Justice on Wednesday night, said the commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, will get one more year for completing its task in the UT, which came into existence on October 2019, after the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state in August that year and announced its reorganisation.

The proceedings of the commission, which has five MPs from the erstwhile state as ex-officio members, have been boycotted by the National Conference (NC) that has three representatives on the panel.

Before Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act in August 2019, the effective strength of the J&K Assembly was 87, including four seats from Ladakh, which is now a separate UT without a legislature.

The NC members, while disassociating themselves with the Delimitation Commission, had said the party had challenged the Act in the Supreme Court and the matter was pending.

Earlier, in a letter to the commission chairperson, NC chief Farooq Abdullah had said: “In our view, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, is palpably unconstitutional and has been enacted in disregard and violation of the mandate.”

Since the population of the Kashmir Valley is higher than Jammu, Jammu politicians have been long insisting that instead of population, geography should be made the criteria.

According to Section 60 of the Act, the number of seats in the UT shall be increased from 107 to 114. With 24 seats in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), the effective strength will go up from 83 to 90.

Courtesy: Daily Tribune : 04rd March 2021