The Delimitation Commission formed to remap the territorial constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir has finally submitted its report on Thursday. While the political parties in the Valley termed the report as "gerrymandering" , the valley based political observers say the report will empower communalism.
The Commission has increased six assembly seats in Jammu division and one seat in Kashmir division.
The Commission has also reserved 9 seats for Schedule Tribe. Of which 6 assembly seats are in Jammu and three in Kashmir. The Commission has suggested two seats for Kashmiri Pandit Community
The Commission headed by Justice ( Retired) Ranjana Desai was working on redrawing the poll constituencies for nearly last two years. The move came after Modi led BJP government read down the special constitutional provisions of Jammu and Kashmir and broke it into two union territories on August 5, 2019.
The Home Minister Amit Shah had declared the overhauling of poll constituencies as a pre-condition to hold the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which has been reeling under the Center's rule since 2018.
However, the entire exercise remained controversial since the Commission made its first draft proposal public. The political parties in the Valley alleged that the poll constituencies were remapped to give electoral benefit to BJP.
For them, the commission had shown little respect for the population, which is a cardinal parameter in redrawing the poll constituencies.
The population of Jammu and Kashmir region, as per the 2011 census, is 1.25 crore. Of it 68. 8 lakh people live in Kashmir while 53.5 lakh belong to Jammu region.
Soon after the Commission announced its final report, National Conference spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar told National Herald that the entire exercise of the Commission is constitutionally suspect.
" They Commission has ignored the cardinal parameter of population" he said. Dar added that people deserved to get equal rights and representation but unfortunately it had not happened.
The party in a tweet said that no amount of gerrymandering would change the ground reality.
CPIM leader M. Y Tarigami said that the exercise was bound to disempower the people for the long run and would change the electoral demography of the region
