Rejecting the recommendations of the J&K Delimitation Commission, the Left parties called the report politically motivated and called for broader consultations before the recommendations were considered.
“The recommendations of the J&K Delimitation Commission are blatantly unjustified and illogical,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement here. It said the recommendations “are clearly politically motivated aimed at changing the demographic character and composition of J&K”. The party pointed out that the Commission has recommended an increase of six seats in the Jammu region while only one in the Kashmir valley.
The Commission had considered the 2011 census for delimiting territorial constituencies. According to the census, the population of Kashmir was 68.9 lakh while that of Jammu was 53.8 lakh. Population should have been the cardinal parameter in the delimitation process, the party said. “The Commission has recommended 47 seats for Kashmir and 43 for Jammu. A fair delimitation, based on population, should have given 51 seats to Kashmir and 39 to Jammu. With 44 per cent of the population, Jammu will have 48 per cent of seats while Kashmir, with 56 per cent of population, will have only 52 per cent of the seats,” it further added.
CPI general secretary D Raja said that before the government proceeded with the Commission's recommendations, it must consult all political stakeholders in J&K. “The Commission's recommendations clearly show that it is aimed at furthering the political agenda of the ruling party. The first step towards this end was to divide J&K and scale it down to Union Territories,” he said. The Prime Minister had held a meeting of all political parties in June 2021 but had not done any follow-up since, Mr. Raja said. He urged the government to call another meeting to discuss the delimitation report.
