Delimitation Commission has recommended representation for Kashmiri Pandits and displaced people from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) by way of nomination in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. A total of nine seats will also be reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the first time.

According to the final report submitted by the commission, all five parliamentary constituencies will have an equal number of Assembly constituencies.

For Kashmir, it has been suggested to increase the Assembly seats from 46 to 47, while the Jammu region will have 43 seats instead of 37. Jammu and Kashmir will have 90 Assembly seats. It is also to be noted that Jammu and Kashmir has been treated as a single entity for the purpose of delimitation.

The commission also recommended reservations for STs in nine Assembly constituencies, out of which six are in Jammu and three in Kashmir valley. All Assembly constituencies shall remain within the boundaries of concerned districts.

When it comes to parliamentary constituencies, one of them has been carved out combining Anantnag and Rajouri and Poonch regions of Jammu. Following this, each parliamentary constituency will have an equal number of Assembly constituencies (14 each).

Patwar circle is the lowest administrative unit that has not been broken.

The Delimitation Commission visited Jammu and Kashmir in July last year to interact with political leaders and civil society groups and get inputs on the exercise to redraw the electoral constituencies in the union territory. The decision to visit Jammu and Kashmir was taken after the panel held a meeting at the Election Commission’s office in Delhi in June.

The redrawing of electoral constituencies was necessitated after Jammu and Kashmir was split into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019 with the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state.