Kashmir gets 47 seats, Jammu 43

New Delhi/Srinagar, May 5

The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission today submitted its final report to the government and subsequently a gazette notification was issued showing the details of the redrawn Assembly constituencies in the UT.

SEGMENTS RENAMED

• Tangmarg as Gulmarg seat | Zoonimar as Zaidibal | Sonwar as Lal Chowk | Padder as Padder-Nagseni | Kathua North as Jasrota | Kathua South as Kathua | Khour as Chhamb | Mahore as Gulabhgarh | Darhal as Budhal
• Rajouri & Poonch dists now under Anantnag LS seat
• 6 new seats in Jammu to be carved out from Rajouri, Doda, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Kathua and Samba
• One new seat for Kashmir valley to be carved out from Kupwara district

VOTER WILL PUNISH BJP

No amount of gerrymandering will change the reality which is that whenever elections are held the voter will punish the BJP. NC

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NO CHANGE, BIAS AGAIN

Kashmir has been discriminated against as in the past. No change. Only the degree of disempowerment is greater. People’s Conference

DIVISIVE GAME PLAN

Have always maintained the commission was meant to execute the BJP game plan in Jammu and Kashmir and divide people. PDP

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90-member House

• 47 Kashmir: 1 new seat
• 43 Jammu: 6 new seats

9 reserved for STs

• 3 Kashmir
• 6 jammu

Erstwhile Assembly

Total: 87 seats

46 Kashmir | 37 Jammu | 4 Ladakh

The commission, formed in March 2020, recommended six additional Assembly seats to the Jammu region and one to the Kashmir valley while bringing areas of Rajouri and Poonch under the Anantnag parliamentary seat. Jammu division will now have 43 Assembly seats and Kashmir 47 in the 90-member House.

With the report having been notified today, decks are now cleared for holding the first Assembly elections in J&K after it was made a UT on August 5, 2019. The erstwhile Assembly had 87 seats — 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu and four in Ladakh. In the reorganisation of the erstwhile state, Ladakh was declared a Union Territory without an Assembly.

A gazette notification was issued after the three-member Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, signed the final order before submitting it to the government.

The other two ex officio members are Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Jammu and Kashmir Election Commissioner KK Sharma.

The population of the Jammu region is 53.72 lakh and Kashmir division 68.83 lakh, according to the 2011Census.

After consultation with associate members, representatives of political parties, citizens and civil society groups, nine Assembly constituencies have been reserved for STs for the first time. Out of these, six are in the Jammu region and three in the Valley.

All five parliamentary constituencies will also have an equal number of Assembly segments for the first time.

The commission in a statement said it had also recommended additional seats in the Assembly for Kashmiri migrants and displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir by way of nomination at par with the power of nominated members (voting rights) in the legislative Assembly of the UT of Puducherry.

The six new Assembly constituencies in the Jammu region are being be carved out from Rajouri, Doda, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Kathua and Samba districts. The one new seat for the Kashmir valley has been carved out from the Kupwara district.

The commission has merged parts of Rajouri-Poonch areas with Kashmir’s Anantnag parliamentary constituency. This is for the first time a parliamentary constituency has been created that transcends the Kashmir and Jammu boundaries.

The regional political parties had opposed joining Rajouri and Poonch areas of Jammu with Anantnag in south Kashmir on the plea that these areas were geographically quite far away.

Both the areas are 160 km from Anantnag via Mughal Road, which remains cut off during winter months due to heavy snow. The new trans-Pir Panjal parliamentary constituency (Anantnag-Rajouri seat) will comprise Anantnag, Kulgam and Shopian of south Kashmir and Rajouri and Poonch of the Jammu region.

The names of some Assembly seats have been changed keeping in view the demand of local representatives and public sentiment.

Tangmarg has been renamed as Gulmarg Assembly seat, Zoonimar as Zaidibal, Sonwar as Lal Chowk, Padder as Padder-Nagseni, Kathua North as Jasrota, Kathua South as Kathua, Khour as Chhamb, Mahore as Gulabhgarh, Darhal as Budhal.

The commission has claimed that Jammu and Kashmir has been treated as a single entity for the purpose of delimitation.

The commission in the notification said there were 24 seats in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) that were vacant.