Delimitation Commission recommends 6 more seats for Jammu, 1 for Kashmir, triggers row

At present, Jammu region has 37 seats and Kashmir has 46 seats in the 83-member Assembly.

According to a statement by the Delimitation Commission, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar had informed the Commission that since the last delimitation, the number of districts in Jammu and Kashmir, now a Union Territory with Ladakh being carved out as a separate UT, has increased from 12 to 20 and the number of tehsils has gone up from 52 to 207.

The Commission has also, for some districts, proposed carving out an additional Constituency to balance the representation for geographical areas having inadequate communication and lack of public conveniences due to their inhospitable conditions on international border.

For the first time, in Jammu & Kashmir, nine seats are proposed to be allocated for Scheduled Tribes out of 90 seats on the basis of population.

Seven seats are proposed to be reserved for Scheduled Castes, the Delimitation Commission said in an official statement.

Details of the proposal emerged after a meeting of the Commission, which was attended by BJP leader from Jammu and Union Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh and National Conference President and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, along with his party MP Hasnain Masoodi.

PDP, another major party of Jammu and Kashmir, boycotted the second meeting of the Commission, which lasted for around three hours.