New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission added six new assembly seats for the Jammu region and one for Kashmir, in its much-awaited report submitted to the Narendra Modi government Thursday.
The report paves way for an election in the Jammu and Kashmir — which has been without a chief minister since 2018.
According to the report, the total seats in Jammu region will now go up to 43 from 37, and Kashmir to 47 from the existing 46. Additionally, for the first time, all five parliamentary constituencies will have an equal number of assembly constituencies (18 each).
The commission also recommended giving representation to Kashmiri migrants and displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied J&K in the assembly.
Political parties in Kashmir have slammed the report, calling it “unconstitutional” and “a sinister plan to dis-empower and disenfranchised the people of the Valley” but politicians in Jammu welcomed it, calling it a means to bring a “power balance in the region”.
Leaders in the Valley have also called the delimitation an attempt to increase the “Hindu footprint” in J&K — an allegation that leaders from Jammu have called baseless because Kashmir would still have more seats than Jammu.
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Disempowerment or power parity?
“From day one, the PDP has maintained that delimitation commission, even though a statutory body, has become an extension of BJP’s agenda to disempower people from a particular community and a region,” former CM Mehbooba Mufti told ThePrint.
“The government of India has once again trampled upon the Constitution of this country by turning the electoral majority into a minority. How it pans out is anybody’s guess. They are trying to create a rift by dividing everyone. This is also laying the political foundation for demographic change which has been the real design behind unconstitutional scrapping of Article 370,” Mufti added.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M.Y. Tarigami added the report has deepened mistrust among people.
“They have done this because it suits the interest of the ruling party. This has made the entire political process suspicious,” he said. “The Delimitation Commission has submitted its final report despite a constitutional freeze on the increase or decrease of parliamentary or assembly seats,” Tarigami said.
“Although the Delimitation Commission was constituted under the Delimitation Act of 2002 has re-drawn the constituencies of UT of J&K in accordance with the provisions of J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, which has been challenged in the Supreme Court,” he added.
For context, the 84th Amendment Act of 2002 says the delimitation exercise throughout India will be put off until the first population census after 2026, which Tarigami pointed out would be “effectively 2031”.
The Reorganisation Act modified voting rights in the state, he said.
‘Voting rights for the state assembly which were restricted to only permanent residents have been extended to non-state subjects also. The exercise is bound to disempower the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the long run,” he said.
However, a political leader from Jammu who did not want to be named said the exercise is for “power parity” in J&K.
“The leaders in Kashmir will always cry conspiracy. This exercise was much needed. It will empower the individuals to exercise his or her franchise,” the leader said. “The essence of democracy is that each person has an equal part in governance. Equal opportunity should be given regardless of caste and religion. Everyone should be given a chance to be a shareholder in the process and this exercise will do just that.”
He claimed that the power balance was tilted toward Kashmir until now.
“Now anyone can become the CM — from Rajouri, from Jammu, from Kupwara. It no longer will be the same people each time,” he said.
Senior BJP leader Devender Singh Rana called the report “all-inclusive political empowerment of all the segments of the Jammu and Kashmir population.”
“This report has opened equal opportunities for all in the political process and decision making, thereby equitably empowering all the residents of J&K,” he told ThePrint.
“This move will provide justice to all and will help in shaping their destiny by being equal partners in governance and decision making. Eventually, it will lead to strengthening the idea of Jammu and Kashmir and thereby the idea of India.”
Of the six additional constituencies in the Jammu division — one each in Kathua, Samba, Rajouri, Reasi, Doda, and Kishtwar — ThePrint found that two regions are predominantly Hindu, one is Muslim, and three have a mixed demographic profile.
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‘Criteria of geography questioned’
According to the commission’s report, the guidelines and methodology for delimitation of constituencies were set keeping in view the “geographical features, means of communication, public convenience, contiguity of areas as various factors”.
In some districts, the commission has proposed carving out an additional constituency to “balance the representation for geographical areas having inadequate communication and lack of public conveniences due to their excessive remoteness or inhospitable conditions on the international border”.
Notably, the Delimitation Act of 2002 states that all constituencies would, as far as practicable, be geographically compact areas, and in delimiting them, “physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and public convenience” must be considered.
This, however, was criticised by political leaders, who questioned the merger of the Poonch and Rajouri districts, which were part of the Jammu parliamentary constituency, with the Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir.
Leaders said the regions have no geographical connectivity. The Mughal Road, which connects the regions through Shopian district, remains closed during winter and opens up only for a few months in summer.
“If geography is the criteria, then how did they put Poonch-Rajouri with Anantnag? One area is one side, the other is another extreme?” Mehbooba Mufti asked.
Political experts told ThePrint that this will benefit the BJP, given that the Valley often has a poor voter turnout. In this case, most votes will be from the Jammu region, giving the BJP an upper hand, experts say.
A second leader in Jammu, however, said that because the road connectivity through National Highway was good, it was wrong to say that the two places were far apart.
“It is absolutely wrong to say that the areas are not connected well. (One can go from) Poonch to Shopian in two to three hours. A tunnel is also proposed in the area. Once that comes up, the distance will be reduced to just one hour. They are just crying foul for no reason. Why don’t these politicians look at J&K as one unit? Why such a myopic view?” this leader said.
A quick search on Google Maps shows the distance from Poonch to Anantnag is 155 km, and from Rajouri to Anantnag is 184 km.
Reserved seats for ST to ‘woo Gujjars’
The commission also recommended additional seats in the assembly for Kashmiri migrants and displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied J&K. It has also reserved nine seats — six in Jammu and three in the Valley — for Scheduled Tribes (ST), a first for J&K.
This reservation is primarily seen as benefiting Gujjars, seen traditionally as the votebank of the National Conference and the PDP. The move, experts say, will help lure them towards the BJP.
“They have been given representation and this will definitely create a soft corner for the BJP, which will benefit them,” Zafar Choudhary, editor of The Dispatch and a political analyst from Jammu, told ThePrint.
Meanwhile, the report has also upset the UT’s Sikh minority, which claims it has been ignored by the commission.
All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina told ThePrint the body had asked for five seats, but hoped to get at least two.
“We had asked for seats to be reserved for the Sikh minority in Tral (Pulwama) and Baramulla in Kashmir, and RS Pura and Gandhinagar in Jammu. These are predominantly areas with Sikh voters, but our community has been ignored once again,” he said.
With inputs from Shubhangi Misra
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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