Amit Shah planning delimitation of constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir: Report

Arunima Bajaj Wednesday 5th of June 2019 10:16 AM

(55) (13)

Amit Shah.

New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah has held meetings with various ministries and agencies and discussed the long-pending delimitation of constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir, according to reports.

According to media reports, at the very heart of the delimitation exercise is redrawing the scope and size of assembly constituencies and determining the number of seats to be reserved for scheduled castes. According to the reports, Shah has already had a closed door meeting with the Jammu & Kashmir governor, Satyapal Malik. He also met Intelligence Bureau director Rajiv Jain and home secretary Rajiv Gauba.

The motive is to correct an inequity and anomaly of regional disparity long suffered by Jammu province and also provide representation to all reserved categories in the state assembly.

However, the reports triggered a sharp response from both National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party – the two most prominent political parties from the state.

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said that she was distressed to hear the plans and tweeted that she was distressed to hear about Amit Shah’s plans. She also said forced delimitation is an obvious attempt to inflict another emotional partition of the state on communal lines.

She alleged that instead of allowing old wounds to heal, the government is “inflicting pain” on Kashmiris.

Distressed to hear about GoIs plan to redraw assembly constituencies in J&K. Forced delimitation is an obvious attempt to inflict another emotional partition of the state on communal lines.Instead of allowing old wounds to heal, GoI is inflicting pain on Kashmiris
— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) June 4, 2019