Delimitation commission serving interests of BJP: Jammu and Kashmir leaders

Leaders of various political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday blamed Delimitation Commission for serving interests of the BJP and termed the draft report unacceptable and disappointing.

After the meeting with Lok Sabha MP’s of J&K including NC president Farooq Abdullah, in Delhi, the Delimitation Commission in its draft has proposed six new seats for Jammu and one of Kashmir division.

After the proposal of the commission will be accepted then Jammu province will have 43 assembly seats while Kashmir will have 47. The commission has asked associate members to submit their suggestions by December 31.

This draft proposal by the delimitation commission has evoked a sharp response from the leaders of mainstream parties in J&K.

“My apprehensions about the Delimitation Commission weren’t misplaced. They want to pitch people against each other by ignoring the population census and proposing six seats for one region and only one for Kashmir,” Former J&K chief minister and the PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in a tweet.

She blamed the Commission for serving interests of the BJP. People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone termed the recommendation of the commission unacceptable.

“The recommendations of the delimitation commission are totally unacceptable. They reek of bias. What a shock for those who believe in democracy,” Sajjad Lone said in a tweet.

“Misrepresenting and distorting the facts with malicious intention! Very misleading statement. We have clearly expressed our resentment over the draft of the Delimitation Commission, the biased process of seat sharing. The party will not be a signatory to this report,” NC said in a tweet.

NC vice president Omar Abdullah also termed the recommendations as unacceptable and disappointing.

“The draft recommendation of the J&K delimitation commission is unacceptable. The distribution of newly created assembly constituencies with 6 going to Jammu & only 1 to Kashmir is not justified by the data of the 2011 census,” tweeted Omar Abdullah.

J&K Apni Party while rejecting the proposal of the delimitation commission sought intervention of centre government.

“This is outrightly unacceptable to us. Apni Party demands a fair delimitation exercise without any bias, taking population and districts as the base. We strongly demand the intervention from the Centre,” said Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari.

JK’s former jaw secretary, Mohammad Ashraf Mir said that one constituency has been carved out for 1,25,082 people in Jammu Division. “For Kashmir Division, the same constituency has been established for 1,46,563 people. In effect, 10,09,621 people of the Valley have been disenfranchised.”

The Home Minister Amit Shah has already made it clear that after the process of delimitation will be completed, elections could be held in UT.