Srinagar: Ahead of the special sitting of Parliament during which the government is set to introduce the delimitation bill, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday expressed hope that delimitation would not be undertaken in an “illogical” manner.
“Delimitation will take place. Nothing will happen even if I or you say something. The BJP has a brute majority and they will do what they want. The delimitation has to happen in 2026-27 and it will take place,” she told reporters in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.
Referring to the delimitation of assembly and parliament constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir in 2023, the former J&K chief minister said the exercise was an “illogical distribution”.
“We hope that the way delimitation took place here last time, which was illogical, will not happen now. There was gerrymandering of constituencies, and the constituencies with less number of voters were created in the Hindu majority areas in Jammu, I hope that illogical distribution will not happen now,” she added.
To a question about the amendments to the Women’s Reservation Bill, she said her party supports women empowerment.
“We want the women to be empowered. They should get their share in Parliament and the assemblies,” she said.
The PDP president also batted for a larger participation of youth in the urban and local bodies elections in J&K.
“I want youth to contest the panchayat and local bodies polls as they are the future,” she said.
The number of Lok Sabha seats will be increased to up to 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise to be carried out based on the last published census.
According to the draft Constitution amendment bill, which will be introduced in the upcoming special sitting of Parliament, seats would also be increased in the state and Union Territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
The Budget Session of Parliament has been extended, and a special three-day sitting of the House has been convened from April 16 to 18, during which amendments to the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’, more commonly known as the Women’s Reservation Act, will be brought for its implementation in 2029.