Indian Delimitation Commission to visit Jammu and Kashmir

A delegation of India’s Delimitation Commission will arrive in Jammu and Kashmir today for a four-day visit through July 9.

The commission is tasked with redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies in the union territory, which lost its state status and corresponding autonomous privileges following the 2019 Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act. The commission will meet with election officials and political party leaders and seek data on voter lists. The National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kashmir’s most prominent regional parties, will meet with the commission after previously refusing to engage unless the region’s statehood was restored.

The NC and PDP’s decision to meet with the Delimitation Commission is a recognition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tightening grip over Jammu and Kashmir. Rather than face possible election exclusions after districts are redrawn, the two parties’ willingness to engage signals a tacit acceptance that self-rule is unlikely to be restored soon given Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposes reversing the revocation of regional autonomy. While neither regional party is technically religiously affiliated, their participation will lend local legitimacy and likely benefit the BJP’s campaign to redraw election boundaries to favor Hindu majority Jammu, continuing its repression of Muslim majority Kashmir.