The newly redrawn boundaries, names and the number of Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), as ordered by the Delimitation Commission comes into effect from May 20, the Law Ministry said on Friday.
The panel’s two orders — one issued on March 14 that dealt with the number of constituencies reserved for various categories and the second one, of May 5, dealing with the size of each constituency — will come into effect together from May 20.
This will be the first step towards restoring the electoral process in the Union Territory (UT) of J&K that has retained its erstwhile legislative Assembly.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 62 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019), the Central Government hereby appoints the 20th day of May, 2022, as the date on which the orders of the Delimitation Commission, Order No. 1, dated the 14th March, 2022 and Order No. 2, dated the 5th May, 2022,... shall take effect,” the Law Ministry notification said.
The Delimitation panel has given six additional Assembly seats to the Jammu region, one to the Kashmir Valley and brought areas of Rajouri and Poonch under the Anantnag Parliamentary constituency. While the Jammu division will now have 43 Assembly seats, and Kashmir 47 in the 90-member house
“In line with people’s aspirations”
Former Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, in an earlier interview, had told The Hindu that the process of redrawing of Assembly constituencies by the Delimitation panel was done in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the UT and in an “inclusive and participative manner”.
The former CEC had said that once the Centre notified a date for the Commission’s order to come into effect, the Election Commission would have to rationalise the polling stations and revise the electoral rolls before conducting meetings with stakeholders.
He said the Commission had visited J&K to interact with stakeholders, including around 800 people during the first visit in 2021 and around 1,500 during the second one in April.
“Ultimately, we have to fulfil the aspirations of the people,” he had said.
The Commission’s decision to carve out a Lok Sabha seat with areas from Jammu region and Kashmir Valley called Anantnag-Rajouri had come in for criticism from political parties, including the National Conference.
