Kashmir MPs boycott delimitation panel meet

Srinagar: Fearing that the Jammu region may get more Assembly segments in the latest exercise being conducted by the Delimitation Commission, all the three MPs from Kashmir valley have boycotted the meeting held by the Commission, while Jammu MPs participated in the latest meeting.
The Delimitation Commission, headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, held a meeting as all the MPs from Jammu and Kashmir are the associate members of this Commission, despite boycott by the Kashmir MPs.
The commission head held the meeting in order to get the views from these associate members on redrawing the boundaries of parliamentary and Assembly constituencies of the newly carved-out Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The National Conference being the part of PAGD is trying to tread cautiously on this issue as BJP of Jammu region is confident that they will get more Assembly segments and may also get a third parliamentary seat when the Commission finally redraws these segments in its report.
The Delimitation Commission in its press release said that it had invited all the five MP’s from Jammu and Kashmir to attend the meeting, but only two of them “Union Minister Jitendra Singh, an MP representing Udhampur, and Jugal Kishore Sharma, who represents Lok Sabha from Jammu, came for deliberations”.
Reacting to the boycott by Kashmir MPs, Jammu leader of BJP and Union minister Jitendra Singh told the media that by boycotting the meeting, these MPs are denying the voices of the electorate to be heard in this forum which is a constitutional body.
National Conference MPs, while staying away from the Delimitation Commission meet, said that they are not taking part in the deliberations owing to the fact that the law, under which they had been called, was being scrutinized by a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. The Delimitation Commission said that they were trying to understand and get feedback from the elected members of Parliament in order to proceed on the process of delimitation based on “the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act-2019 and Delimitation Act-2002.” The other members of the Delimitation Commission, apart from Justice (retd) Desai, are Election Commissioner Sushil Chndra and State Election Commissioner of J&K K.K. Sharma.
It is in place to mention that BJP has been advocating for the reorganization of all the Assembly segments of Jammu and Kashmir along with parliamentary segments. BJP chief of Jammu and Kashmir Ravinder Raina has already said that after the delimitation process is complete, Jammu and Kashmir will get a Hindu chief minister as the Jammu region will get more Assembly seats.