New Delhi: The Jammu & Kashmir Delimitation Commission on Thursday signed the final order for restructuring of Assembly constituencies in the Union Territory. The three-member panel completed the deliberations and gave their final approval, a day before their term comes to an end. This will pave the way for much-awaited Assembly elections in the valley.
The commission, formed in 2020, was tasked to redraw the boundaries of Assembly & Parliamentary constituencies of the Union Territory. The panel is headed by ex SC judge Ranjana Prakash Desai and has Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and deputy election commissioner Chander Bhushan Kumar, state election commissioner (SEC) KK Sharma and chief electoral officer Hridesh Kumar as its ex-officio members.
43 seats in Jammu & 47 in Kashmir
The panel has proposed increasing the number of Assembly seats of Jammu from 37 to 43 while increasing 1 seat in the valley. Currently, Kashmir has 45 constituencies. One extra seat will be carved out from Kupwara district.
For the first time, 9 constituencies have been proposed for Scheduled Tribes, which means that this seat will be reserved for backward candidates only.
The commission has proposed raising the total number of seats from 83 to 90. Besides, there are 24 seats in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) that continue to remain vacant.
The commission was granted a year extension last year and got its second extension for 2 months, this February.
Mehbooba slams Delimitation report
Valley-based parties have taken potshots at the Delimitation report and accused it of acting at the behest of BJP government. Mehbooba Mufti slammed the Delimitation Commission report and said that this will only disempower the people of province.
