Delimitation commission to begin J&K visit today, PDP to skip meet

The delimitation commission will arrive in Srinagar Tuesday afternoon for its four-day visit. While parties including National Conference, National Panthers party, People’s Conference, Apni party, Bharatiya Janata Party have nominated their representatives to meet the commission, the People's Democratic Party has not nominated any of its members.

Srinagar: The delimitation commission, on a four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, will arrive in Srinagar Tuesday afternoon to meet various political parties, district election officers and other cross-sections of the population. The commission will meet leaders of various political parties to hold deliberations with them over the ongoing process of delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sources said that the commission will meet the delegations including representatives of political parties at Grand Lalit in Srinagar from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. Headed by Justice (R) Ranjana Prakash Desai, the Commission will redraw the boundaries of the Assembly segments and create seven new constituencies which will increase the number of assembly segments to 90. At present, JK UT has 83 assembly segments and with new seven seats, the total number will rise to 114 including the 24 under Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Ahead of the visit, political parties have nominated several party leaders to meet the commission and put forward their point of view. PDP has not nominated any of their members to meet the commission as sources said they will boycott the meeting. National Conference has nominated senior leaders including Abdul Rahim Rather, Nasir Aslam, Mian Altaf, Sakina Itoo and Muhammad Shafi.

The National Panthers Party has chosen Syed Masood Andrabi, Manzoor Ahmad Naik, Hakikat Singh Jamwal, Farooq Ahmad Dar and Hakeem Arif Ali as their representatives to meet the commission. Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference have nominated Bashir Ahmad Dar, Mansoor Hussain Soharwardy, Mohammad Khurshid Alam and Mohammad Ashraf Mir as its representatives.

J&K Apni party has nominated Ghulam Hassan Mir, Zaffar lqbal Manhas, Usman Majid, Rafi Ahmad Mir and Mohammad Ashraf Mir, while the Congress has nominated GA. Mir, Peerzada Mohd Sayeed, Taj Mohiuddin, Bashir Ahmad Magrey, Surinder Singh Channi and Vinod Koul as its representatives.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has nominated Sofi Yusuf, GM Mir, Surinder Ambardar and Altaf Thakur as its representatives. Among other parties, which are going to meet the commission include Bahujan Samaj Party, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

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