Creation of Anantnag-Rajouri seat in J-K done without application of mind, says Ghulam Nabi Azad

Democratic Progressive Azad Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad Sunday said the delimitation process, which led to the creation of the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, was done without application of mind. Azad said the delimitation commission should have recommended increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats in Jammu region to three without tinkering with the seats in the Kashmir valley.
“If they had to increase the seat for Jammu, they should have made three seats there. No Kashmiri would have made noise against it. What difference would one seat make in 550 seats? By making it 2.5 seats for each region, they have widened the differences within the (Anantnag-Rajouri) constituency,” he said.

“The delimitation of constituencies was done without application of mind. If they had seen physically where Rajouri-Poonch is and where this (Anantnag) is and if they had travelled by road, they would have known that these two regions are divided by mountains for thousands of years,” Azad told reporters while campaigning for his party candidate Mohammad Saleem Parray in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.

Azad said campaigning in the election is going to be difficult. The candidates will find travelling between two regions cumbersome.

“The road remains closed due to snow for six months in winter. What kind of constituency is this? With due respect to the Election Commission and the Delimitation Commission, the process has not be done with application of mind. “This exercise cannot be done through Google. These things are done on the basis of physical verification. If it were to be done on Google, then some of the neighbouring countries will also be touching our mountains which will be a big problem politically,” he said. Azad also cited the example of Tangdhar and Gurez assembly constituencies saying the delimitation there has been very wrong. The former chief minister refused to comment on the allegations against his party by the regional parties like the National Conference (NC) saying his party will not indulge in personal attacks.

“We will criticise our rivals for their manifesto and policies. The candidates should be decent enough in the campaign to face each other after the elections are over,” he added.