As the Congress president Malikarjun Kharge has called a meeting of opposition alliance parties to discuss the issue on Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asserted the INDIA bloc must collectively decide its response to the proposed parliamentary bill, stressing that a unified stand was necessary.
Speaking to media persons in Srinagar on the sidelines of a function, the Chief Minister raised concerns over past delimitation exercises, alleging that constituency restructuring had politically favoured the BJP and its allies.He said he would attend an INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi to be held at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, where the opposition is expected to formulate a joint strategy on the proposed bill.
He said the INDIA bloc will have to decide together what will be the response to this bill and what will be their role in Parliament. “Individual parties acting alone would not be effective. There is a need for collective decision-making within the alliance,” he said.
Referring to the past delimitation exercise, he said the distribution of seats, the way constituencies were made, the way maps were drawn and the way voters were shifted, the purpose was only that somehow the BJP and its allies should benefit.He further said the proposed changes in parliamentary composition, including an increase in the number of Lok Sabha members and provisions for women’s representation, would be examined collectively by the opposition bloc.
INDIA bloc meeting is scheduled at 3 pm on Wednesday at the residence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi.“I will attend the meeting. As for what the National Conference intends to do, we will discuss it there. We cannot act alone; the INDIA bloc must collectively decide our response in Parliament—whether in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha,” he said.
On delimitation, Abdullah said it remained to be seen whether the proposed Bill would benefit the BJP or the common voter. Referring to the 2023 delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir, he alleged that it had been structured to favour a particular party.“The manner in which seats were allocated, constituencies delineated and boundaries drawn, along with the shifting of voters, suggested an attempt to benefit the BJP and its allies,” he said.
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