Srinagar: Delimitation of assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir is going on a war footing. A crucial meeting of the Delimitation Commission was held on Monday proposing to increase the number of seats in Jammu by six seats and one more seat in the Kashmir Valley. If the proposal is given the green signal, Jammu will get a political edge and the role of the region will increase in deciding the chief minister of the state. Earlier, the Kashmir valley was dominated by the region due to a high number of seats. Union Minister and MP Jitendra Singh as well as another BJP MP Jugal Kishore were present at the meeting held on Monday.
National Conference leader and former CM Farooq Abdullah, retired judges Hasnain Masoodi and Mohammad Akbar Lone were also present in the meeting. The meeting was held at Ashok Hotel in Delhi. If the recommendations of the Commission are accepted, then the assembly seats in Jammu will go up to 43, while the number of assembly seats in the Kashmir Valley will be 47. Thus, the seat gap between the two regions will be only 4. Out of the total seats, it has also been proposed to reserve 9 seats for tribal communities and 7 seats for Dalit communities. The concerned members have been asked to submit their suggestions by December 31.
The Delimitation Commission comprises retired apex court judge Ranjana Desai, chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and Jammu and Kashmir chief election commissioner. The Commission has been ordered to delimitation all seats by 6th March. Elections will be held in the Union Territory only after the seats and their boundaries are fixed. However, non-BJP parties in the state have also questioned the commission several times. Recently, Mehbooba Mufti's party PDP had said that we have no faith in the Delimitation Commission as it is working on the BJP's agenda.
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