Indian Home Minister Amit Shah had said in January that elections would be held in Jammu and Kashmir soon after the delimitation process was completed. – Photo: AFP
A list of new political constituencies for Occupied Kashmir was released on Tuesday in which the Hindu population in the Muslim-majority areas has got a large representation and the way is being paved for new elections.
The Occupied Territories originally consisted of the Muslim-majority Valley of Kashmir, the Hindu-majority region of Jammu and the remote Buddhist enclave of Ladakh.
The government said that a delimitation commission has finalized 90 assembly constituencies in Occupied Kashmir, excluding Ladakh, with 43 reserved for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir, followed by 37 in Jammu and Kashmir Valley. There were 46 seats.
It is a controversial plan as the commission did not take into consideration the population based on 2011 census.
As the census Jammu’s population is 44% and Kashmir’s 56%. The commission gave more seats to Jammu relative to their population.
The report was rejected by the People’s Democratic Party of Jammu and Kashmir.
The National Conference said in a statement on Twitter that “any manipulation will not change the ground realities. Whenever there is an election, the voters will punish the BJP and its proxies for what they have done in the last four years.” What has happened with Jammu and Kashmir?
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