Srinagar: With the J&K Delimitation Commission proposing to redraw the boundaries of the existing constituencies in the Union Territory in its second draft report, former Chief Minister and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti has said the proposal “is a plan to disenfranchise the majority population”.
The commission in its report on Saturday has proposed redrawing of the Anantnag Parliamentary seat by including Rajouri and Poonch from the Jammu region even as suggesting massive changes in the Kashmir division. For instance, barring Khanyar, Sonwar and Hazratbal Assembly seats of Srinagar district, all other seats have been redrawn and merged with new suggested Assembly seats, including Chanapora and Srinagar south. While Budgam district, which has five Assembly seats, has been redrawn and merged with Baramulla Parliamentary constituency besides splitting some of the areas and carving out new Assembly seats like Kunzer in north Kashmir.
Sangrama seat in north Kashmir has been merged with other Assembly seats, while Pulwama, Tral and some areas of Shopian, which formed part of the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, will now be part of the Srinagar Parliamentary seat, as per the Delimitation Commission draft recommendations. Mehbooba Mufti has said that the second report released by the delimitation commission “was not a surprise to her”. Speaking to the media at the party office in Srinagar, she alleged that the commission was “working on the BJP's agenda”.
She said that the new Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir have been “arranged in such a way that it does not matter whether there is voting or not”. She said that through the Delimitation Commission, BJP has “strengthened its Assembly constituencies and destroyed the constituencies of other political parties by dividing the voters”. Mehbooba Mufti while targeting the Central government said that it was “not listening to the people and their demands, but was running a tyrannical system”.
She said the PDP had already expressed concern that the Delimitation Commission was “set up to further the BJP's agenda”. She said that the BJP was “trying to disenfranchise the majority population in Jammu and Kashmir. And Muslims are being segregated”.
