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| Kashmir parties lobby for early Assembly polls | | Chat Mangini Pat Biayah! | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Mar 9: With the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir having been given an extension of one year, some of the main Kashmir-based political parties are lobbying for “early Assembly elections.”
Sources said some of the parties like the National Conference, Awami National Conference and the Peoples Conference have started lobbying in the corridors of power in New Delhi that elections should be held before the delimitation exercise is completed.
The Peoples Democratic Party, however, it was learnt is yet to give its consent for the same.
Sources said the Kashmir-based regional parties are of the opinion that if the elections are held before delimitation exercise, the elected government can get the delimitation exercise further delayed.
Sources said some of the leaders from the NC are already in touch with some of the leaders from the Bharatiya Janta Party, and have been trying to persuade them over holding of Assembly elections as soon as possible.
Sources said the recent victory of the Kashmir-based regional parties in the District Development Council elections has “emboldened them to contest more elections before it’s too late.”
Sources said both the National Conference and the Peoples Conference believe that elections at this moment can fetch them more seats.
“In DDC elections, the National Conference bagged good number of seats from both Jammu and Kashmir regions whereas the Peoples Conference did well in north Kashmir, so both the parties find a hope if elections are held early,” said a sources privy to the party.
The Delimitation Commission, a panel for redrawing the parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, has got a one-year extension.
A gazette notification issued by the government said the panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, will get one more year for completing its task in the Union Territory, which came into existence on October, 2019 after the Centre abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state in August that year and announced its reorganisation.
The panel was set up last year to redraw the electoral constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir and four northeastern states -- Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
However, the one-year extension is only for Jammu and Kashmir.
The proceedings of the commission, which has five MPs from the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir as ex-officio members, have been boycotted by the National Conference (NC) that has three representatives in the panel.
Before Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act in August 2019, the effective strength of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was 87, including four seats from Ladakh, which is now a separate Union Territory without a legislature.
The strength of the realigned Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is 107 now with 24 seats to continue to remain vacant as those fall in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). |
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