Jammu Tawi, Mar 4: Assembly Elections in J&K are unlikely to be held anytime soon as the Delimitation Commission has got a one-year extension to finish its task of redrawing the parliamentary and assembly constituencies in the Union Territory.
The NC and PDP have been protesting against Delimitation as they say its an attempt to change the power centre of J&K from Kashmir to Jammu by increasing seats in Jammu Region which benefits the BJP.
Delimitation refers to the demarcation of boundaries of parliamentary or assembly constituencies. The process is carried out every few years to ensure that each constituency has approximately an equal number of voters.
Before Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act in August 2019 after abrogation of Article 370, the effective strength of the J&K Assembly was 87, including 4 seats from Ladakh, which is now a separate UT without a legislature.
The strength of the realigned J&K Assembly is 107 now with 24 seats to continue to remain vacant as those fall in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
According to section 60 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, “…the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114….”
With 24 seats in PoK, the effective strength will go up from 83 to 90.
The elections to the assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be held only after the process of delimitation is completed.
