Won’t participate in delimitation exercise, says NC

Srinagar: The National Conference on Friday said it will not participate in the delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir, a day after three party MPs including its president Farooq Abdullah were nominated to the Delimitation Commission set up by the Centre to assist the panel in redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies in the newly-created union territory.

“The @JKNC_ will not participate in the delimitation exercise,” NC chief spokesperson Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said on Twitter. Mehdi said a detailed statement of the party over the issue will follow soon.

All five Lok Sabha MPs from Jammu and Kashmir — three from the NC and two from the BJP — have been nominated as “associate members” of the Delimitation Commission to assist the panel in redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies in the newly-created union territory.

On May 26, the Lok Sabha Speaker nominated the members on the panel from the two parties.

Abdullah, who represents Srinagar in the Lok Sabha, was released from over seven months of detention in March. His colleagues, Anantnag MP Hasnain Masoodi and Baramulla MP Akbar Lone, are the other two NC leaders on the panel.

Union minister and Udhampur MP Jitendra Singh and Jammu-Poonch MP Jugal Kishore Sharma are the two BJP leaders on the panel.