Jammu, May 5 (PTI) The Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir has redrawn boundaries of most of the assembly seats in Jammu region to maintain an equitable population ratio and has increased the number of constituencies to 43 from 37.
The commission has also given larger representation to Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities in Jammu by reserving seven and five seats for them respectively.
The three-member commission signed its final report on Thursday.
The new seats have been carved out in six districts — Doda, Kishtwar, Samba, Rajouri, Kathua and Udhampur. With the addition, Doda, Kishtwar and Samba will now have three seats each, Udhampur four, Rajouri five and Kathua six constituencies.
Kishtwar district has gained one assembly seat of Padder Nagseni. The new seat in Doda district is Doda West. Jasrota is the new seat in Kathua, Ramnagar in Udhampur and Ramgarh in Samba.
While the commission has given in to the public outcry and retained the Suchetgarh constituency in Jammu district, it has done away with some seats of Kashmir or got new names for constituencies.
There was no increase in the number of seats of Jammu (11), Reasi (3), Ramban (2) and Poonch (3) districts.
While the commission has reserved five seats — Rajouri, Thanamandi (Rajouri district), Surankote, Mendhar (both Poonch district) and Gulbgarh (Reasi) — for the ST community, seven seats — Ramnagar (Udhampur), Kathua, Ramgarh (Samba), Bishnah, Suchetgarh, Marh and Akhnoor (all Jammu) — have been reserved for the SC community.
In Reasi district, Gool-Arnas constituency has been redrawn as a new seat, Shri Mata Vaishnodevi.
All other constituencies in the district have had pockets added or deleted, but the total number has been retained at eight seats.
The Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat has seen an increase of four new assembly segments, while two went to the Jammu parliamentary seat.
The total number of poll constituencies will rise from 83 to 90, with 43 in the Jammu region and 47 in Kashmir. In the current state House, Jammu has 37 members and Kashmir has 46.
The proposed increase of six seats in Jammu division was on expected lines, political observers in Jammu said.
While no new constituency has been proposed in Jammu district which has 11 seats, the BJP may get a boost in Rajouri-Poonch and Doda-Kishtwar belts since seats have been created along with reservation for the first time for STs comprising the Gujjar and Bakarwal communities.
Forming the third largest ethnic group after Kashmiris and Dogras in J&K, the two groups reside largely in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, besides Anantnag, Ganderbal and Bandipora areas of Kashmir.
Most of the representations regarding the change of names of the proposed constituencies were accepted by the commission in view of the public sentiment.
These name changes in Jammu region included naming Padder assembly constituency as Padder-Nagseni, Kathua North as Jasrota, Kathua South as Kathua, Khour as Chhamb, Mahore as Gulabhgarh, and Darhal as Budhal. PTI AB SMN
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Source: The Print
