Srinagar: Boundaries of almost all assembly constituencies of the Kashmir Valley have been redrawn by the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission to create 47 constituencies, up from 46 earlier, for a population of over 70 lakh.
According to the final report of the three-member commission, the only assembly seat to be increased in the Valley has been added to Kupwara district, which will now have six seats.
Anantnag district has also gained one assembly seat and will have seven constituencies, but this came at the expense of the neighbouring Kulgam district, which saw its tally reduced to three.
While the Commission has given in to the public outcry and retained the Habba Kadal constituency in Srinagar district, it has done away with Amira Kadal, Sonawar and Batamaloo as names for constituencies.
Amira Kadal was named after 18th century Afghan governor of Kashmir Amir Khan, and Batamaloo was named after a revered Sufi saint, whose shrine is located at a stone’s throw from the Civil Secretariat in the city.
Batamaloo has been rechristened Central Shalteng, apparently to commemorate the battle between the Indian Army and the Pakistani tribal invaders in the Shalteng area in 1947.
Amira Kadal and Sonawar have been merged to form a new constituency called Lal Chowk, while another new constituency has been carved out of Chanapora tehsil of the old Amira Kadal constituency.
All other constituencies in the district have had pockets added or deleted, but the number has been retained at eight seats.
In Baramulla district, the name of the Gulmarg constituency has been retained, while Sangrama has been renamed Wagoora-Kreeri. In this area as well, pockets have been added or deleted from all assembly segments, but the number has been retained at seven seats.
Budgam and Pulwama have had all nine assembly constituencies retained between them, but some adjustments have been made in the areas.
In Shopian district, the Wachi assembly segment has been done away with and a new constituency named Zainapora created. The Shopian seat has been retained.
Kulagam district lost the Homshalibugh seat, while Anantnag gained one, named Anantnag West.
The Noorabad seat in Kulgam has been renamed as D H Pora.
Anantnag, which had only six seats earlier, will now have seven. Bijbehara has been renamed Bijbehara-Srigufwara, while Shangus has had ‘Anantnag East’ added to the nomenclature.
All parliamentary constituencies have been redrawn in Kashmir. The number of assembly segments in north Kashmir’s Baramulla parliamentary constituency has gone up from 15 to 18. Two seats have been added from Budgam district, while the other is the seat added in Kupwara.
The Anantnag parliamentary seat has got additional areas from Rajouri district to take its tally of assembly constituencies to 18.
The Srinagar Lok Sabha seat now extends from Kangan in Ganderbal district to the Shopian constituency, passing through all four assembly seats of Pulwama district. These five seats were earlier part of the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat. (With PTI inputs)
