Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 14: Reacting to the telephonic conversation between BJP leaders doing rounds on the social media, chairman JKNPP and former minister Harsh Dev Singh said that JKNPP’s allegations of BJP Govt influencing the Delimitation Commission in preparing the draft report have been vindicated.
In the audio-recording which has gone viral, the State president is unambiguously making a statement and assuring a BJP leader that he has included a favourable belt of Ramban constituency in the latter’s constituency and that there is no reason to worry. “I have annexed the Assar belt in your constituency. All those voters are yours”, Ravinder Raina is heard assuring the BJP leader Shakti Parihar.
It is dumbfounding to note that the BJP State president is claiming to have himself made the modifications in the draft Delimitation report rather than getting it done through the Delimitation Commission. What a mockery. The statement amply demonstrates that the report is being finalized in the office of BJP as had been stated by the NPP leadership earlier as well. The draft report submitted by the Commission to the Associate members is therefore motivated, biased and defective, Singh said while addressing a press conference here today.
NPP leader further said that the suggestions given by the opposition parties and civil society during their interaction with the Commission have been blatantly ignored and the said report seemed to have been prepared keeping the political expediency of the Saffron party in consideration.
Speaking on the occasion, Harsh Dev accused the Delimitation Commission of having ignored the ground situation and prepared the draft as per the dictations of the ruling party. “The constituencies have been created casually in a haphazard manner by defying the prescribed parameters governing the process of Delimitation. The Assembly seats have been created and redrawn in conformity with the dictates of the BJP Govt thereby, overlooking the convenience of the general masses. The result was massive disenchantment and resentment brewing amongst the public particularly in the rural and remote areas.
“People’s aspirations have been thrown to the winds. 47 seats have been allocated for Kashmir against 43 for Jammu region. Not only that, several areas of Jammu region which had remained reserved for 27 years, since the last delimitation exercise of 1995, were again included in reserved constituencies thereby defeating the very objective behind rotation of seats at the time of every fresh delimitation. Moreover, several weird constituencies have been carved with gross irregularities in their territorial structure lacking justification, rationale and meaning”, Singh stated.
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