Farooq Abdullah accuses Centre of extending J&K delimitation deadline, seeks elected govt

Speaking at a convention organised by National Conference's OBC cell on Wednesday, Farooq Abdullah rued the delay in the delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. On this occasion, he accused the Centre of extending the deadline for the Delimitation Commission to submit its findings. While the panel has to submit its report by March 6, 2022, Union MoS Home Nityanand Rai skipped mention of any deadline in his written reply to Lok Sabha MP Satyadev Pachauri on Tuesday.  

Instead, the Union Minister noted, "The endeavour of Commission is to complete the said exercise as early as possible". Taking umbrage at this stance, Abdullah alleged that the Centre has reneged on its promise. Moreover, he stressed the need for J&K to have an elected government very soon. 

Former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah remarked, "We were promised that elections will take place after the delimitation process is completed. Time was given till March 6 and we were told that the deadline will not be extended. Today, the deadline has been extended. They say something and do something else." 

"People here have suffered a lot. Enough of dictatorship, bureaucracy and Lieutenant Governor rule. Now, the people's government must come. People's problems can be resolved only by a people's government and not a dictatorship," he added.

The delimitation exercise

Referring to the demarcation of boundaries of Parliamentary or Assembly constituencies, the delimitation process is carried out at regular intervals to ensure that each constituency has approximately an equal number of voters. It is usually done when a state is divided which is the case with J&K, which was split into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. Elections have not been held in the state since the dissolution of the state Assembly on November 21, 2018.

As per the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of J&K shall be increased from 107 to 114. According to the government notification dated March 6, 2020, retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai and the State Election Commissioner of the concerned state or Union Territory were appointed as the other two members of the Delimitation Commission. On May 26, 2020, three JKNC Lok Sabha MPs Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi, Akbar Lone and two BJP MPs Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore were nominated by the MHA as associate members of the panel. 

From July 6-9, the panel visited J&K to interact with political parties, public representatives and administration officials of 20 districts to garner inputs. While the delegations of BSP, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), NC, Congress, J&K Apni Party, J&K People's Conference and other parties submitted their representations to the Delimitation Commission, PDP refused to take part in the proceedings citing that it is a "pre-planned" exercise. As per sources, a majority of the 20 Deputy Commissioners have already sent their response to the 290 representations received by the commission.