Delimitation: LS MPs to be appointed Commission’s associate members

To assist poll-body in exercise; won’t have voting rights

SRINAGAR: With J&K currently without a Legislative Assembly, its four Lok Sabha members - three from National Conference and one from Bharatiya Janta Party- would be appointed as associate members for delimitation exercise of the Union Territory Assembly.
Going by statutory obligations under the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act, four Lok Sabha MPs would assist the delimitation commission in discharging its function ranging from increasing seats to alteration of boundaries of existing segments to reserving berths for Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
They, however, won’t have voting rights nor they can sign any decision of the Election Commission.
The re-organisation law provides that four MLAs of J&K UT Assembly or four members of Lok Sabha shall be appointed as associate members of the delimitation commission.
Of five Lok Sabha MPs from J&K UTs, three are from NC and two from BJP.
While Jitendra Singh(MP from Udhampur) is minister in PM Narendra Modi’s government, the remaining four MPs- Dr Farooq Abdullah( MP from Srinagar), Muhammad Akbar Lone( MP from Baramulla and Hasnain Masoodi ( MP from Anantnag) and Jugal Kishore Sharma(MP from Jammu)- would be appointed as associate members for the delimitation exercise.
With National Conference being chief critic of the Centre’s decision to abrogation of Article 370 and re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir, it would be interesting to watch whether the party MPs would assist the poll-body in delimitation exercise.
As already reported, the Government of India has set the ball rolling for the delimitation exercise.
The Chief Election Comissioner has nominated Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as member of the delimitation panel which would be headed a former Supreme Court judge. J&K’s election commissioner would be third member of the panel.