The J&K Delimitation Commission has recently recommended the redrawing of 83 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. It proposes to add six seats to the Jammu region and one seat in the Kashmir Valley.
In an interview with The Hindu, Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) senior leader Naeem Akhtar said many constituencies will vanish as per the draft proposal. The former spokesperson in the PDP-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in J&K said a case in point is the proposed Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency, that aims to club areas which are geographically and culturally different.
The Habba Kadal constituency in Srinagar that has a sizeable Kashmiri Pandit population stands to be dissolved. Two members from the community were nominated to the 36–member Legislative Council that was abolished in 2019, post reading down of Article 370 and J&K was split into two Union Territories. Mr. Akhtar said democratic peaceful options were being snatched from Kashmiris.
