On Tuesday, the Delimitation Commission will arrive in Jammu and Kashmir to meet with political parties, district officials, and other stakeholders in order to gather “first-hand information” on the ongoing process of redrawing the state’s boundaries. The members will begin their four-day visit in Pahalgam, where they will meet officials from Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, and Shopian, four districts in South Kashmir.
The delegation will travel to Srinagar later that evening, where they will meet with local officials and political leaders. On July 9, the visit will come to an end.
All major political parties, with the exception of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are undecided about meeting the commission’s members, including the National Conference (NC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the CPI(M), and the National Panthers Party (NPP).
The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a coalition of six parties including the NC and the PDP, said on Monday that no joint decision had been reached on participating in the commission’s proceedings. Individual parties would have to decide whether or not to meet with the Delimitation Commission delegation, according to the alliance.
“As far as the PAGD is concerned, our stand is that these are autonomous bodies and the respective political parties will decide about it (participating in the commission’s meeting). Whatever the parties think is suitable for them, they will take steps accordingly,” PAGD spokesperson and CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami said in a statement.
The visit comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened an all-party meeting in the national capital to discuss the state’s next steps. It was the first high-level meeting between the central government and Kashmir’s political leadership since the latter repealed Articles 370 and 35A, which granted J&K and its people special status, in 2019.
PM Modi said during a meeting with 14 leaders from eight J&K parties on June 24 that the delimitation process must be completed quickly so that elections can be held to instal an elected government in the union territory, which will help it continue on its development path.
The three-member commission was established by the Centre in March of last year to create new constituencies in the union territory. The number of assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir is expected to increase from 83 to 90 once the delimitation exercise is completed. Twenty-four seats in the assembly remain vacant because they are located in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (PoK).
