Delimitation of Assembly constituencies will be carried out on the basis of the 2011 Census

The Law Ministry on Friday notified the delimitation commission for Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. The three-member commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has nominated Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as his representative on the commission. The third member will be the election commissioner of the state or Union Territory concerned.
Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to represent changes in population and is done on the basis of the last Census.

Home Minister Amit Shah, while announcing reorganisation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, had said delimitation of Assembly constituencies of the erstwhile state would be carried out on the basis of the 2011 Census.

According to the J&K Reorganisation Act passed by Parliament last year, “…the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies may be determined by the Election Commission in the manner hereinafter provided.”

Notably, 24 of the total seats in J&K remain perennially vacant as they are allotted to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The reorganisation Act also says Lok Sabha will have five seats from the Union Territory of J&K and Ladakh will have one seat.

Courtesy: The Indian Express