Multiple poles in J&K elections

With no local government, and with bureaucrats at the helm for the past six years, the people in the UT are looking forward to representative democracy. KALEEM GEELANI reports

- KALEEM GEELANI

Regional and national parties in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are preparing for a reprogrammed battleground marked by 10 years of there being no Assembly election, delimitation of constituencies, and the emergence of new parties and candidates, who delivered a few surprises in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

The polls will be held in three phases on September 18 and 25, and October 1 for the 90 Assembly seats. With no local government, and with bureaucrats at the helm for the past six years, the people in J&K are looking forward to representative democracy.

Some of the factors that will shape the next Assembly are the J&K Reorganisation Act of 2019, the Delimitation Commission Report of 2022, the J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Act of 2023, and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) status accorded to the Paharis.

The J&K Reorganisation Act provides for carving up the state of J&K into the Union Territories of J&K (with a legislature) and Ladakh (without a legislature). It increased the seats in the J&K Legislative Assembly from 107 to 114. Since 1988, the number of seats in the J&K Assembly was 111, including 24 reserved for Pakistanoccupied Kashmir, including Gilgit and Baltistan, and four seats in Ladakh. Effectively, the Assembly had 87 elected members and two seats were reserved for women, who were nominated.

With the re-drawn boundaries and formation of new constituencies due to the 2022 delimitation exercise, the Assembly strength of J&K (Ladakh excluded) has gone up from 83 to 90. The Jammu region has seen an increase of six seats and Kashmir one. Parties in Kashmir have alleged gerrymandering to inflate the election outcomes in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) favour because the party has a strong footing there.