New Delhi, Jan 18: Chief Election Commissioner of (CEC) Rajiv Kumar today said that elections in J&K ‘are due and these would be held after taking weather, security concerns and the schedule of other state polls into account.
“The process of delimitation has been completed in J&K,” he said while replying to queries of scribes in a press conference here.
“Fixing, re-arranging polling stations, appointing ROs, AEROs and rest of the formalities have been completed. We are of the view that wherever these things are completed, elections become due and they must be held,” Kumar added.
The CEC said that elections in J&K would be held after taking weather, security concerns and schedule of elections in other states into account. He, however, didn’t specify any date or month when J&K would go to polls.
The delimitation process in J&K was completed last year. The Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai had finalised the Delimitation Order for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. Sushil Chandra (Chief Election Commissioner) and K K Sharma, (State Election Commissioner, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir), were ex-officio members of the Delimitation Commission.
As per the final Delimitation Order, the following things came into effect from the date to be notified by the central government: Out of the 90 assembly constituencies in the region, 43 will be part of Jammu region and 47 of Kashmir region, keeping in view the provisions of section 9(1)(a) of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 60(2)(b) of Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
After consultation with associate members, representatives of political parties, citizens, civil society groups, nine assembly constituencies were reserved for STs, out of which six are in Jammu region and three in the valley.
There are five Parliamentary Constituencies in the region. The Delimitation Commission has seen Jammu & Kashmir region as one single Union Territory.
Therefore, one of the Parliamentary Constituencies has been carved out combining Anantnag region in the valley and Rajouri & Poonch of Jammu region. By this reorganization, each Parliamentary Constituency will have an equal number of 18 Assembly Constituencies each.
Names of some ACs have also been changed keeping in view the demand of local representatives.
It may be recalled that the Delimitation Commission was constituted by the Government of India in exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 of 2002) for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The Commission associated in its work, five members of Lok Sabha elected from the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. These Associate Members were nominated by the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The Delimitation Commission was entrusted with the work of delimiting the Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of 2011 Census and in accordance with the provisions of Part-V of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019) and the provisions of Delimitation Act, 2002(33 of 2002).