J&K parties plan joint stir over delimitation report

Jammu, May 9: Major Opposition parties, including the Congress, NC and PDP, on Monday announced a joint struggle against the recently released final report of the delimitation commission on J&K. The announcement was made after a three-hour long meeting of the parties and several social organisations under the banner of All Parties United Morcha (APUM).

The delimitation panel on Jammu and Kashmir, formed in March 2020, on May 5 notified its final report giving six additional Assembly seats to the Jammu region and one to the Kashmir Valley and bringing areas of Rajouri and Poonch under the Anantnag parliamentary seat.

The Jammu division will now have 43 Assembly seats and the Kashmir division 47 in the 90-member house.

The APUM comprising Congress, National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI(M), CPI and IDP besides several social organisations like Mission Statehood and Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee have already rejected the delimitation report as “highly objectionable, biased and politically motivated”.

“The meeting decided to jointly launch a struggle and a sustained campaign to oppose the (delimitation) report and awaken the general public, starting from a joint sit-in this week in front of the election commission (office),” read a statement issued after the meeting.

Senior Congress leader and former MLC Ravinder Sharma presided over the meeting which among others was attended by NC provincial president (Jammu) Rattan Lal Gupta, former MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman, former MLC Ved Mahajan, PDP spokesperson Virinder Singh Sonu and CPI(M) leader Kishore Kumar.

The meeting reiterated its demand for early restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir before holding of the Assembly polls.

The participants also deliberated on the report and said it was against geographical realities, norms of uniform population, compactness, contiguity, connectivity and public convenience and prepared at the behest of the ruling BJP.

Criticising the final report, the leaders said the commission has totally ignored the ground realities.

THE DELIMITATION panel on J&K, formed in March 2020, on May 5 notified its final report giving six additional Assembly seats to the Jammu region and one to the Kashmir Valley