7 political parties met Delimitation Commission in J-K, submit separate memorandum

By Joymala Bagchi

New Delhi, [India], July 7 (ANI): Members of seven registered political parties met Delimitation Commission on the first day of the visit of the Delimitation Commission to Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday to begin the task of carving out new constituencies.

According to sources, the members of each political party that met today handed over a separate memorandum to the commission.

The commission, comprising Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra, and Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan, had scheduled the meeting with political parties on its first day of arrival.

“The Commission expects all stakeholders to co-operate in providing valuable suggestions so that the task of Delimitation completes on time,” another source said.

Earlier in March this year, the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir, which was set up in March 2020 to redraw the parliamentary and assemblies constituencies, got a one-year extension from the Central government.

The three-member delimitation commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai was appointed in February last year with an extended one year after it failed to complete its task last year.

The Delimitation commission or Boundary commission of India established by the government of India under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act is tasked with redrawing the boundaries of the various assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies based on a recent census.

The Commission was constituted in March 2020 and its term was extended by another year in March 2021 in view of the ongoing pandemic.

The Act provides that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies will be determined by the Election Commission.

However, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did not meet Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission.

A letter from PDP addressing the head of the commission stating that the outcome is widely believed to be pre-planned and which may further hurt the interest of the people.

The Commission is in Jammu and Kashmir till July 9 to interact with union territory administrative officials, political parties and public representatives. (ANI)