J&K parties unhappy with delimitation panel’s final draft
The Hindu
Fundamental as well as the secondary criteria have been ignored, says NC
Most political parties in J&K, with the exception of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Thursday expressed disappointment over the final draft of the J&K Delimitation Commission, which has redrawn boundaries to add six additional constituencies to the Jammu division and one to the Kashmir division, to take seat strength to 90 in the Union Territory.
“Population is the fundamental criteria in any delimitation exercise while connectivity, contiguity and convenience are next to be followed. Here is the case where fundamental as well as the secondary criteria have been ignored. It is clearly designed to disempower and disenfranchise people,” National Conference (NC) leader and MP Hasnain Masoodi, who is also an associate member of the panel, told The Hindu.
The NC, which had earlier boycotted the panel but decided to participate after top party leaders met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an all-party meeting in June 2021, termed the fresh draft as ”an attempt to ensure that the BJP gets an advantage in the elections”.
“How is it that electorate size in a constituency in Jammu is around 70,000 and over two lakhs in Kashmir?” Mr. Masoodi asked.
The NC has been maintaining that the delimitation exercise is “unconstitutional” in the face of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 under which the panel was set up will be challenged in the Supreme Court.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which boycotted the panel during its visits to J&K, said the party’s fears had come true.
“Our party from day one has looked at the delimitation exercise as an extension of the process started on August 5, 2019 to disempower people from a particular community and a region. The Government of India has used or misused independent institutions to turn the electoral majority into a minority by using geography, access as a ruse,” Naeem Akhtar, senior PDP leader and a close aide of Mehbooba Mufti, said.
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