NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to complete delimitation exercise of Jammu & Kashmir within a year which is most likely to tilt balance of power towards Jammu region with more MLAs than the Kashmir in the legislature of the Union territory of J&K.

The Centre had on Friday notified constitution of delimitation commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai and will have election commissioner Sushil Chandra as one of its members to redraw the assembly and parliamentary constituency of J&K as per the J&K Reorganisation Act of 2019. After abrogation of Article 370 on August 5 last year, the erstwhile state was carved into two separate union territories of J&K and Ladakh, the former with a legislature.

According to the Reoganisation Act, seven more seats will be added to the present 85 seats in J&K, excluding four seats held by Ladakh. PoK with 24 allotted seats will remain untouched in the delimitation exercise, top sources said. At present Kashmir region has 46 seats and Jammu 37, besides two nominated members.

The delimitation commission, which will simultaneously undertake a similar exercise in four northeastern states of Assam , Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, will distribute MLA constituencies as per the 2011 population census. According to sources, the Jammu region, which saw largescale migration to Jammu from the militancy-hit Kashmir since 1990s, will have more representatives from the region in the new legislature.

The Hindu-dominated Jammu region had seen influx of both Muslim and Hindus from Kashmir fleeing the Valley after armed militancy broke out in 1989. However, if more seats are allotted in the Jammu region as the case may be based on population, each constituency would have a mix of voters unlike Kashmir. The last delimitation exercise in J&K was carried out in 1995.

The 24 seats in the PoK will not be considered in “reckoning the total membership of the Assembly” and it will remain vacant and will be excluded in ongoing delimiting exercise. The total assembly seats after the delimitation will go up from existing 107 to 114.

The delimitation exercise will also lead to a number of reserved constituencies based on the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes settlements and would further tilt the balance in favour of Jammu region.

In redrawing the boundaries, the Commission has been tasked to create geographically compact areas with talukas and districts to be bound together in earmarked constituencies. The Election Commission will publish its proposals for the delimitation of constituencies together with the dissenting proposals, if any, in the official gazette with a notice inviting objections and suggestions. A final decision will be taken only after giving due considerations to all suggestions, a senior official said.

