No legislature in place, elections not in sight, J&K will have no voice in RS after Feb 2021

JAMMU: With no legislature, Electoral College for Rajya Sabha, in place since June 2018 and next elections not in sight, Jammu and Kashmir will cease to have representation in Upper House of the Indian Parliament by February 2021.
The erstwhile state used to send four Members to the Rajya Sabha who are elected by the Members of Legislative Assembly. Last elections, for term of six years, were held in February 2015, which is also remembered as first indication of the ideological rivals Peoples Democratic Party and Bhartiya Janta Party coming together as they supported each other before formal announcement of the alliance.
With a term of four Rajya Sabha Members from Jammu and Kashmir coming to an end in February next year, the newly created Union Territory will have no representative in the House to raise the concern of the people.
Jammu and Kashmir presently has four MPs in the Upper House namely, Congress party stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad, two from Peoples Democratic Party, Nazir Ahmad Laway, Mir Mohd Fayaz and from Shamsher Singh Manhas from the Bharatiya Janta Party.
Mir Fayaz and Shamsher Singh Manhas will be retiring on February 10, 2021, whereas Ghulam Nabi Azad and Nazir Ahmad Laway will be retiring on February 15, 2021.
The term of all these Rajya Sabha members, who are representing Jammu and Kashmir, is ending in February 2021. The issues of the general public like development, concerns would not be raised in the House for their redressal in view of their term coming to an end and this region will have no representative to pitch the voice of the people.
The Centre may hold Assembly Elections in Jammu and Kashmir only after completing the delimitation process of Assembly Constituencies. The current stage of ongoing delimitation process and its likely conclusion is yet to be known.
Jammu and Kashmir UT, therefore, shall be not be represented in Rajya Sabha which would have a direct impact on burning issues bothering the people of this newly created UT, they said and added, “the committee constituted for setting Delimitation Commission into motion has to generate public opinion, consider geographical as well as topographical conditions, consider population and area of every constituency besides taking into account other socio-economic factors before carrying out the delimitation of assembly constituencies”.
The Delimitation Commission has been set up to redraw the boundaries of the electoral constituencies for J&K and North Eastern States.
According to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly will increase to 114 from 107, with due reservations for SC and ST communities. The seven additional seats are expected to be ST seats.

Updated On 9/22/2020 11:18:15 AM