Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Jammu and Kashmir’s National Conference (NC) today decided to boycott the delimitation exercise, saying its participation in the exercise would tantamount to accepting all events that unfolded in J&K post August 5 last year.
The NC cleared its stance a day after Centre nominated three of its MPs as the associate members of the delimitation commission. The NC leaders who were nominated as the members of delimitation commission include party chief Dr Farooq Abdullah and Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone.
After hectic deliberations over the issue, the party came up with a detailed statement. It said that with reference to the recently-announced delimitation commission, NC rejects the process and its three members of the parliament will not participate in the delimitation exercise.
“This delimitation commission is a product of the J&K Re-organization Act 2019 which JKNC is challenging in and outside SC. Participating in this delimitation Commission will be tantamount to accepting the events of August 5, 2019, which the NC is unwilling to do,” a statement issued by the party read.
It said that according to the constitution of J&K, the constituencies were to be delimited in 2026 with rest of the country.
“The constituencies in the state were last delimited in ‘90s. Thereafter an amendment was made in the constitution of J&K unanimously passed in the State Assembly in which all the regional parties, Congress and BJP voted for this amendment to go with the delimitation with rest of the country in 2026. Therefore, the constitution of the delimitation commission is unwarranted,” the statement further said.
Five Lok Sabha MPs from J&K were nominated by Speaker Om Birla as associate members of the delimitation commission which was constituted on March 6.
Headed by former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ranjana Desai, Election Commissioner, Sushil Chandra and Chief Electoral Officer, Hirdesh Kumar are members of the panel which was constituted under the Delimitation Commission Act.
Before August 5, 2019, the delimitation of Assembly was not possible in Jammu and Kashmir till first census after 2026 – that is at least not before 2031 – due to amendments carried out in J&K Constitution and J&K Representation Act, 1957, under which delimitation exercises were carried in the erstwhile state of J&K in 1975 and 1995.
The Re-Organisation Act enacted by the BJP-led Central government paved way for the first delimitation exercise in J&K after abolishing its statehood.
In the erstwhile, Legislative Assembly, Kashmir region had 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh had 4 seats.
Meanwhile, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) slammed NC for its decision of boycotting the delimitation exercise. “This is very unfortunate that they have decided to drag their feet from the exercise for which people of J&K have been yearning for long,” said BJP’s J&K Affairs incharge and national vice president, Avinash Rai Khanna. He said the main aim of the delimitation is to address the regional imbalance.
