Srinagar:
Probably the Jammu and Kashmir assembly in India is the only elected house in the world which keeps 24 of its seats vacant in the name of one of its erstwhile regions that is now disputed territory - what is known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK. That is why voters in the state elect only 87 representatives in a house of 111 legislators.
The distribution of these 87 seats is no less interesting. The Kashmir region, which covers less than five percent (4.4 to be precise) area of the entire state, elects more legislators (46) than what forms the absolute majority in the functional house.
Of the remaining two regions, Jammu sends 37 legislators from the 21.63 percent area it represents and Ladakh elects just four while accounting for 73.97 percent of the land mass of the state.
This arrangement is backed by laws passed by an assembly that remains loaded in favour of the Kashmir region.
The first assembly, constituted in 1951 by 'Prime Minister' Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, had 100 members. The Sheikh kept a lion's share of 43 seats for his Kashmir Valley and left just 30 for the Jammu region and two for Ladakh. The remaining 25 seats were left 'vacant' -- for POK until it returns to India.
This composition was formalised in the first J&K Representation of People Act of 1957. The second delimitation of 1995 increased the total number of assembly seats to 111. Kashmir region's share went up to 46 with 37 for Jammu and four for Ladakh. The vacant seats were 24.
In 2002, the National Conference government refused to extend the central government's fourth delimitation to Jammu and Kashmir.
Instead, it used its two-third majority in the house to adopt the 29th amendment to the state constitution to freeze the assembly's composition and the valley's majority until 2031.
But the delimitation of 1995 is remembered more for its clever exercise in social engineering of the constituencies. Jammu- and Ladakh-based critics (read 'victims') point out that the statistical jugglery ensured that the odds were heavily loaded against the non-Muslim candidates in most constituencies of the Jammu and Ladakh regions.
src:sify.com