Lagatar24 Desk
Srinagar, May 5: The Jammu and Kashmir delimitation commission tasked with redrawing Jammu and Kashmir’s election map is expected to notify and submit its final report today. The commission’s tenure is coming to an end tomorrow.
The commission’s draft report, which was made public a few months ago, sparked a firestorm of controversy as the opposition accused the government of gerrymandering to benefit the BJP and turning a demographic majority into a political minority in numerous districts.
Except for modifying the recommended names of several constituencies in the final report, the commission has made no significant adjustments.
Former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai chairs the panel, which also includes chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and deputy election commissioner Chander Bhushan Kumar, state election commissioner KK Sharma, and chief electoral officer Hridesh Kumar as ex-officio members. It was given a year’s extension and then a two-month extension in February of this year to complete its duty, which was set to end on March 6 otherwise.
The panel met with various delegations in Jammu on Monday before departing for Srinagar to meet with stakeholders and submit its findings. It heard and received representations from around 200 delegations and civil society representatives from Ramban, Rajouri, Poonch, Kishtwar, Kathua, and Doda districts.
The commission has proposed raising the number of seats in the union territory from 83 to 90 since the division of Jammu and Kashmir into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in August 2019. Furthermore, there are 24 seats in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) that remain unfilled. In addition, nine seats for scheduled tribes have been proposed for the first time (STs). Six extra seats have also been requested by the panel for Jammu and one for Kashmir. As of now, the Kashmir division has 46 seats and Jammu division 37.
