The Delimitation Panel headed by former Supreme Court judge, Ranjana Desai has submitted its reports and the electoral map of J&K—which is supposed to get its statehood back soon after the election—has been totally redrawn. As per the recommendations, Jammu will now have 43 assembly seats from just 37 while Kashmir has been accorded just an increase of 1 seat and will now have 47 seats. The panel, while it was working in J&K, met several people who provided their valuable inputs. But when when the report was put out, there was a hue and cry from all the sections. In the Union Territory of J&K the only party which has not raised a single issue is the BJP, rest, almost all the parties, including the National Conference—whose Dr Farooq—is a member of the panel, have expressed their reservations on the report of the delimitation panel.
For the sake of formality, the report was put out, inviting objections, and suggestions from the public, even as the panel met with the local representatives at different levels at SKICC who presented their reservations, but the suggestions have been put aside, objections thrashed, the panel went ahead and submitted its proposal—best suited to the ruling party—and the Government did not waste a single second which published the same in a Gazette notice—making it final. However, one peculiar thing that so far seems to have been overlooked and hardly talked about is the affect on the intrinsic weight of a single vote in J&K, something that seems to have been deliberately levelled-down in Kashmir and made to go up in Jammu. In Jammu, to be noted, the assembly constituencies will have an average population of 1.25 lakh, while the same is going to be 1.46 lakh in Kashmir, which directly points towards the less value of a vote in Kashmir in comparison to those that of in Jammu. The panel was well within its power to carry out the exercise in J&K, but has it ended up denting the value of a vote?
