With the restoration of a Jammu and Kashmir assembly on the radar, the first visit to Jammu and Kashmir by the delimitations Commission has split the so-called Gupkar alliance. Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stands virtually isolated from the process of reorganisation of the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory.

Even as the former Chief Minister Mehbooba has characteristically distanced herself and her party from the Commission’s four-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the other constituents of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD)— an amalgam of some valley-based political parties campaigning for restoration of Statehood and special status have met with Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai and other functionaries of the Commission on the first day of the visit in Srinagar on Tuesday, July 6 . Other PAGD constituents, include Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference (NC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Almost all other regional and national parties with some presence in Jammu and Kashmir, notably the BJP and the Congress, are meeting with the Commission and submitting their proposals and reservation with regard to delimitation of the constituencies and the constitutional requirement of the addition of seven seats to the Legislative Assembly of 83 seats.

The J&K Reorganisation Act of August 2019, which reorganised the erstwhile State into the two UTs of J&K and Ladakh and withdrew its special status, necessitates an addition of seven new seats to the Assembly before conducting the UT’s first Assembly elections. It also mandates reservation of some seats for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and rotation of the seats already reserved for Scheduled Castes.

The PAGD constituents, as also the Congress party and Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party (AP) and Sajad Lone’s Peoples Conference (PC), have raised questions over the rationale of holding the delimitation process for only the J&K UT without waiting for the results of the new census. Senior NC leaders, including the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, have demanded delimitation on the basis of the new census before 2026. Almost all of them have been demanding “restoration of full Statehood” before the next Assembly elections. However, they have invariably decided to put up their arguments and submissions before the Commission, rather than boycotting the process like Mehbooba.

After the exit of the Congress and the PC, the PAGD has been left with 5 constituents including the CPI (M). However, the NC and the PDP alone have a foothold across the valley and parts of the Jammu division. The alliance headed by NC’s Farooq Abdullah convened a meeting on Sunday, 4 July, over the issue of the Delimitation Commission’s scheduled visit to J&K and an invitation to the different political parties to make their submissions.

Mehbooba, according to the insiders, contended that the political parties had no role in shaping the Commission’s recommendations. She also complained that the Centre had not initiated any follow up action after the J&K leaders’ first meeting of the last three years with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 June. Mehbooba, as well as the NC and some other participants, had demanded certain “CBMs”, particularly the release of the political detainees not involved in heinous crimes.

The PDP President had reportedly complained to the Prime Minister that the Central agencies had caused considerable torture to her mother by calling her for questioning in a matter of alleged money laundering of the Chief Minister’s secret fund during the PDP-BJP regime, in the last over one year. She had also asked India to hold talks with “Pakistan and all others” for the resolution of the Kashmir problem.

With serious differences over certain issues, the PAGD meeting on Sunday concluded that the delimitation commission’s invite had gone to different parties. It left the decision of attending or boycotting the deliberations to the parties invited.

Subsequently, the PDP spokesperson Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura said in a statement on behalf of his party: “The Commission lacks constitutional and legal mandate. There are apprehensions that the exercise is part of the overall process of political disempowerment of the people of J&K”.

The fact that while the delimitation process across the country has been put on hold till 2026, J&K has been made an exception. There are apprehensions that the process is aimed at realizing the political vision of a particular political party, and the views and wishes of the people of J&K would be considered the least,” Hanjura said.

Delegations of different parties, comprising senior leaders, met with the Commission at a hotel in Srinagar on Tuesday separately. All of them submitted detailed memoranda—the NC and some other parties demanding restoration of Statehood before the Assembly elections. They asserted with different arguments that the next Assembly elections be held on the basis of the year 2011 census.

While the deliberations were still underway, Mehbooba’s mother Gulshan Nazir received yet another notice from the Enforcement Directorate to attend a session of questioning at the Central agency’s Srinagar office on 24 June. Early this year, she had attended the first session of questioning over the alleged money laundering of CM’s secret fund. Mehbooba herself attended a different session of the questioning.

Mehbooba quickly posted the ED’s fresh notice to her mother on her Twitter handle. She tweeted: “On the day PDP chose not to meet Delimitation Commission, ED sent a summon to my mother to appear in person for unknown charges. In its attempts to intimidate political opponents, GOI doesn’t even spare senior citizens. Agencies like NIA and ED are now its tools to settle scores”.

While the Commission would wrap up its deliberations in the valley today, it is scheduled to meet leaders of different political parties, including the NC, the BJP and the Congress, in Jammu on 8 and 9 July.