Keep topography, population, area as priority in delimitation exercise: BJP

SRINAGAR — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday said that Delimitation Commission must consider the topography, population and area of both regions of the erstwhile State before submitting its report so that elections could be held in a smooth manner.

BJP General Secretary (organization) Ashok Koul said that finally the Centre has constituted delimitation commission after getting the feedback for its need. “After revocation of 370, delimitation commission was must as elections can’t be held unless there is delimitation of Assembly seats,” he said.

Asked what is the BJP’s stand over the issue, he said that the commission must take into consideration the topography, area and population in view before submitted the report. “We want equal share at booth level, district level, zone level and then regional level. Our demand is equal treatment to people of all districts of J&K UT and it’s the duty of delimitation commission to ensure justice to one and all,” Koul said.

BJP’s J&K Affairs in-charge and national vice president Avinash Rai Khanna said that the Commission has to be set up to keep in view certain parameters. “Suppose, there is an area where there are 40,000 people living which was represented by one single legislator, wasn’t that an injustice. How can one representative cater to the needs of such large number of people,” he said. “Similarly, the Commission has to keep in mind the topography, geography, area and boundaries of districts. The regional imbalance has to end once and for all.”

Khanna said that once the regional imbalance goes, things will be easy and elections can be held so that people of J&K get their due share.

It is pertinent to mention that yesterday, the Centre announced the members for the delimitation commission with four members from J&K that include Member Parliament Dr Farooq Abdullah, Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone from National Conference besides, MoS in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh and BJP MP Jugal Kishore. The commission is likely to submit the report within six months.

It may be recalled that J&K was sliced into two Union Territories (UTs) and Article 370 was rolled back through an announcement on August 05 last year, and decision was formally implemented on October 31. At present, J&K is a Union Territory with a provision of Assembly.