After the abrogation of Article 370 that gives special status to Jammu & Kashmir, the Modi Government is expected to set up a Delimitation Commission to redefine the electoral boundary of the constituencies in the State.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, provides for an increase in seats from 107 to 114 through a delimitation exercise and all the seven new ones will be created.
Top sources said that the Election Commission (EC) will start the process of delimitation of the constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir once the bill to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories is passed. Delimitation would be carried out on the basis of the 2011 Census data.
The Delimitation Commission will redraw the maps of assembly and parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir, which converted into a Union Territory after the Presidential Order 2019.
EC officials said that the Commission will have to carry out the exercise after a Delimitation Commission is appointed. The delimitation commission will submit its recommendation to the Narendra Modi government with regard to the number of assembly constituencies only.
Presently, the state of Jammu and Kashmir has 87 assembly constituencies and six Lok Sabha constituencies. Of them, four assembly and one Lok Sabha constituencies are in Ladakh region, which is going to be a separate Union Territory.
Kashmir Valley has 46 (more than 50 per cent) assembly and three (half of) parliamentary constituencies allocated to Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu has 37 assembly and two Lok Sabha seats. Theoretically, 24 assembly seats are earmarked for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The last time a delimitation exercise took place in the state was also under President’s rule, in 1995, by Justice (retd) KK Gupta Commission when J&K was divided into 87 Assembly constituencies. While Muslim majority Kashmir Valley has 46 seats, Hindu majority Jammu region has 36 and Buddhist dominated Ladakh division four.
For Ladakh, according to Government’s Jammu & Kashmir reorganisation proposal, will have no legislature, the delimitation commission will have the task of looking into the number and demarcation of both the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir regions of the existing State.
This comes in the backdrop of complaints — particularly from people living in Jammu region — that a smaller in size and dense in population, Kashmir Valley has enjoyed overwhelming presence in state assembly and undue share in the Lok Sabha.
According to the 2011 Census, the population of Kashmir Valley was 68,88,475 with 96.40% Muslims. Though it has 15.73% of the state’s geographical area, it holds 54.93% of the population and has 46 seats in the Assembly.
Against this, Jammu division had a population of 53,78,538, of which Dogras, the dominant group, comprises 62.55% of the populace. Jammu has 25.93% of the geographical area and 42.89% of the population, and 36 Assembly seats.
The Ladakh region has 58.33% geographical area but accounted for just 2.18% of the population, with a mere 2,74,289 people residing there, 46.40% of them Muslims, 12.11% Hindus and 39.67% Buddhists. The region has four seats in the Assembly.
In 2002, then the Farooq Abdullah Government froze delimitation until 2026 by amending the Jammu & Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957, and Section 47(3) of the Constitution of the state through Parliament.