J&K Apni Party Protests Delimitation Draft, Sikh Group Demands 4 Assembly Seats

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) protested the recent proposal of the Delimitation Commission at Lal Chowk here on Wednesday terming it “unacceptable” and also submitted a memorandum in this regard to lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha. 

In its first draft on the proposed allocation of Assembly seats in J&K, the commission, headed by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, had suggested on December 21 adding six seats to the Jammu division and one to Kashmir. According to the draft, this will increase the total seats in Jammu from 37 to 43 and 47 in Kashmir.

The commission was constituted following the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, which makes it mandatory to increase the number of seats in the Union Territory to be raised from 107 to 114 through delimitation. Since 24 of the 114 seats are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and unrepresented, the effective strength of the J&K Assembly will increase from 83 to 90.

Criticising the proposal as “biased”, opposition parties have argued that it was carried to provide Jammu, a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party, an upper hand over Kashmir.

Carrying placards that termed the draft “unscientific”, scores of JKAP workers led by president Altaf Bukhari held a silent protest outside his residence. The police prevented the protesters, who also demanded the freedom of the press, from marching towards the Secretariat.

“We are also protesting the settlement of non-domiciled people through the backdoor and the curbs on the media. We are not against investment but we won’t allow outsiders to settle in J&K,” Bukhari told reporters.

The party, which had earlier welcomed the commission and interacted with its members “believing that the process would be factual and transparent”, found that the draft is “visibly disproportionate and encourages favouritism towards a specific political party”, the memorandum read. The draft “defeats the idea of a secular India and compromises on the rules guiding the process involved in territorial delimitations of Assembly constituencies as mandated by the Election Commission of India and the Constitution”.

Soon after the protest, the All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) alleged that successive state governments had neglected the minority community and demanded reservation of four seats for Sikhs in the Assembly. 

Jagmohan Singh Raina, chairman, APSCC, said that despite demanding reservation during a meeting with the commission members, no seats have been reserved. “It was also mentioned in the memorandum submitted to the commission. The cold attitude of the commission means that the basic rights of Jammu and Kashmir will not be extended to the Sikh community in the forthcoming delimitation of Assembly segments,” Raina said during a presser in Srinagar. 

Raina, who was accompanied by several other community leaders, said that Sikhs were “neglected and discriminated against all these years and even now in the new Union Territory”.