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| Not only this, the local governance too is bound to remain in the limbo for an indefinite period as the government has expressed its inability to hold the Panchayat elections. | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Nov 5
After several months of hype and a political tug of war it has become evident that creation of new assembly constituencies is not a possibility during the time of present dispensation.
The coalition government had last year in a "historic decision" announced the creation of more assembly constituencies in the state. In July last year the state cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had decided that assembly constituencies shall be increased to 25 per cent of existing on the regional basis.
This required the setting up of a delimitation committee to carve our new segments out of the existing ones. However, before the delimitation commission could be set up the issue rolled out in the hands of regional politics as again Kashmir versus Jammu politics prevailed on the increase of assembly constituencies.
Since this major exercise needs to be legislated in the assembly and being a constitutional amendment required two-third of majority, therefore the issues got further murkier due to the lack of consensus. Even though the decision was taken by a consensus in the cabinet meeting but later even the coalition partner, Peoples Democratic Party too dragged feet on the issue. National Conference had already made its opposition to the creation of more constituencies clear as the party wanted a proper mechanism for the whole exercise.
Therefore, the Chief Minister had to constitute an all party committee which had representations from all political parties including the BJP. The all-party committee which had two marathon meetings earlier this drew blank as a lack of consensus clouded the issue.
Making it quite evident that creation of new constituencies won't be possible during the present term; Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said that the government would need a two-thirds majority in the State Assembly which was not there at the moment. He said the Government would have to undo the legislation enacted by the National Conference government placing a blanket ban on delimitation up to 2026.
The Chief Minister said that the panchayat elections in the State could be held simultaneously with the assembly elections or after that. He said providing security for elections to 4100 panchatats across the State would be a Herculean task and the government did not want to put lives of the candidates to risk. He said only when the government was satisfied that adequate security could be provided to the candidates whose number would be in thousands, the elections for panchayats would be held |
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