The much-awaited report was notified and submitted by the Delimitation Commission on Thursday to redraw the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir, in which all the five parliamentary constituencies will have equal number of Assembly Constituencies (ACs) for the first time. Also nine seats will be reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST).
As per the final delimitation order, out of 90 assembly constituencies, 43 will be part of Jammu region and 47 will be for Kashmir region. For the purpose of delimitation, Jammu and Kashmir will be treated as a single entity.
Of the nine assembly constituencies reserved for STs, six are in the Jammu region and three in the Valley.
Patwar Mandal is the lowest administrative unit, which has not been broken up. All the assembly constituencies will remain within the limits of the respective district.
The commission has also recommended additional seats in the assembly for Kashmiri migrants and those displaced from Pakistan-occupied-J&K. The former Jammu and Kashmir state has not had an elected government since 2018.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra, who is also a member of the Delimitation Commission, had recently told News18 that the process of delineating Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir would be done by May 6.
“Delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir is going on since March 2020,” he said in the exclusive interaction. “It has been two years and the tenure of the commission is till May 6. By May 6, 2022, of course, the report on the delimitation of J&K will be submitted and the process will be completed.”
Since Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status with the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019, as per the new rules, the number of assembly constituencies has been increased from 107 to 114.
However, 24 of these seats are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). So, for now, the delimitation exercise is being done only for 90 seats.
The commission is headed by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Desai, and includes CEC Sushil Chandra and state election commissioner KK Sharma.
The commission was set up on March 6, 2020, six months after the reorganization of the Union Territory, with a term of one year to redraw the parliamentary and assembly constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir.
The commission was given an extension of one year in 2021 and then two months by the Center on March 6, 2022.
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