Why PM's meet with all J&K parties is crucial amid delimitation work and Assembly polls speculation?

New Delhi: The meeting of all the regional political parties of Jammu and Kashmir with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday is an important exercise since the centre announced the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state. Following the bifurcation into two Union Territories in 2019.

After the Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a virtual meet with the state administration on Friday, where he reviewed various development projects and the status of central government schemes in the Union Territory, the central government extended an olive branch to Jammu and Kashmir's regional parties, including those (political leaders) were held captive for months in the wake of the abrogation of Article 370 on Saturday, political experts believe.

They also assume that the meeting is part of the Modi government's initiatives to reinforce political processes in the Union Territory.

Further, delimitation is crucial for kick-starting the political process in the valley and according to the local reports, the government is facing major challenges in this issue. On Independence Day last year, PM Modi had said elections would be held in J&K after the delimitation process in the UT was over. Hence, the invitation to 14 key regional political leaders in the national capital for a meeting with the Prime Minister keeps a major significance and lead to speculation about possible scheduling of the Assembly elections. The delimitation work to end by March 4 this year though, it was granted a year's extension. This was done at the request of the panel members since it couldn't make much progress due to the ongoing pandemic situation-induced shutdown across the country.

Making it a prior focus the government at the centre formed a 'Delimitation Commission'- headed by Supreme Court judge (retired) Ranjana Prakash Desai. Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and J&K State Election Commissioner KK Sharma are the ex-officio members of the delimitation panel. Other, the panel has five associate members - National Conference MPs Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, junior minister in Prime Minister's office Jitendra Singh, and Jugal Kishore Sharma of the BJP.

The commission is established by the Indian government under the provisions of the Delimitation Commission Act, which redraws the boundaries of the various Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies. The representation from each state is not changed during this exercise. However, the numbers of SC and ST seats in a state are changed following the census.

Importantly, the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, enacted in 1957, was based on Maharaja's Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir of 1939. A bicameral legislature was envisaged under section 46 of the constitution. Sheikh Abdullah, the second chief minister's administration carved out 30 seats for the Jammu region, 43 seats for the Kashmir region and two seats for the Ladakh region.

The move by the government might have the reason to correct the inequity and anomalies of regional disparity long suffered by Jammu province since 1996, and also provide representation to all reserved categories in the Assembly. Adding, Assembly seats were delimited in 1963, 1973 and 1995 respectively. The last exercise was conducted by the Justice (retired) KK Gupta Commission when the state was under President's Rule and was based on the 1981 census, which formed the basis of the state elections in 1996.

Now, after the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status in 2019, the delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in the newly-created UT would be as per the provisions of the Indian Constitution. As per the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, the number of Assembly seats in J&K would increase from 107 to 114, which is expected to benefit the Jammu region.

Meanwhile, the senior politicians of the Gupkar alliance have welcomed the invitation formally and reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to attend the meeting, but refused to comment.

Sources say that the regional political parties of Jammu and Kashmir demand the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood and special status under Article 370 of the Constitution. Whereas, the national party Congress' only demand is the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.

Among leaders of national political parties who have received the invitation and are expected to attend the meeting are Ghulam Nabi Azad, Tara Chand and GA Mir of the Congress, and MY Tarigami of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In other regional parties, the Peoples Conference's Sajad Gani Lone and Muzaffar Hussain Baig and Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party's Altaf Bukhari are expected to join the meeting. The Jammu region of the union territory will be represented by three senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, Ravinder Raina, Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta. Besides, Professor Bhim Singh of the Jammu-based National Panthers Party also stands invited to the meeting.