IN a move that has been unanimously slammed by the major political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, the draft paper of the Delimitation Commission has proposed seven additional Assembly seats for Jammu and Kashmir — six in Jammu division and one in Kashmir valley. The commission has also proposed reserving nine seats for Scheduled Tribes on the basis of population. Seven seats are proposed for the Scheduled Caste community. These additions have taken the total Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir to 90. The number of seats in Jammu increased from 37 to 43, while the number of seats in Kashmir went from 46 to 47.
The figures show a glaring difference in the seat sharing between two regions. And this has become a huge bone of contention in J&K with political parties like National Conference, the PDP, the People’s Conference and even the Apni Party terming the new delimitation as “totally unacceptable.”
Also, the move has caused deep unease in Kashmir Valley, with people seeing in it a design to disempower the majority community in the state. People widely believe that the new seat-sharing does not reflect the new electoral ground reality but are designed to ‘correct’ the alleged imbalance in the electoral representation between Jammu and Kashmir. And this has been done now. In Kashmir, there was always an apprehension that the new delimitation of seats is geared to benefit Jammu. The leaders of the ruling party had made no bones about enhancing the number of seats in Jammu in a way that may pave way for a Hindu Chief Minister for the former state.
This premeditated approach to the exercise has undermined its credibility. From the looks of it, it seems geared to favour one community only with a full backing of the state. And that too without taking the state’s political parties on board, let alone starting a public debate. Delimitation of constituencies is very contentious in nature and it is important to build a political and public consensus before the government seeks to go about the exercise. And this is something which only a democratically elected government is capable of achieving. But the union government has chosen to do it during the Lieutenant Governor’s rule. It would be all good if the delimitation commission was seen to be acting transparently and fairly but this is not the case. So, it is incumbent on the government to review the proposals and address the grievances in Kashmir.
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