The Union Ministry of Home Affairs is expected to table the report of the Delimitation Commission in both the Houses of Parliament for discussion and approval in the ongoing monsoon session.
The copies of the Delimitation Commission reports have already been sent to the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats. However, the final schedule of tabling the report has not been finalised.
After receiving the nod from both the houses of the Parliament the stage will be set for holding the first ever Assembly polls in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir after the reorganisation of the erstwhile state which took place on August 5, 2019.
As per the Parliamentary procedure, before tabling the report on the floor of the house the Union cabinet will have to first approve the proposal of nominating two members from the community of Kashmiri migrants and also finalise the fair representation to the members of the Displaced persons from Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK). Speculations are rife the Union cabinet may approve nomination of at least four POJK members along with two Kashmiri pandits further bridging the gap between the total number of seats between Jammu and Kashmir regions.
Out of the 90 Assembly Constituencies in the region, 43 fall in the Jammu region and 47 in the Kashmir region.
24 seats are reserved for PoJK.There is already provision for nomination of two women to the Legislative Assembly which was the case in the previous House also when Jammu and Kashmir was a State.
With these likely changes the strength of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly could reach 98 taking into account nomination of two women and likely nomination of two Kashmiri Pandit migrants and four PoJK refugees. According to political observers in Jammu and Kashmir, a thorough debate on the recommendations of the delimitation commission report should take place in the Parliament before approving the same. However, a lot depends on the behaviour of the opposition parties and the floor management by the ruling dispensation. If the opposition parties would remain adamant and disrupt the proceedings of the house the union government may not opt for a full debate and push the report for approval.
Out of five associate members three National Conference members in Lok Sabha including Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi are most likely to push for a comprehensive debate in the house while BJP which has two members including Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma may take a middle path.