Explanation:

The Delimitation Commission, set up to redraw the Assembly seats of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, has proposed six additional seats for the Jammu region and one for Kashmir Valley in its `Paper 1` discussed with its five associate members recently.

Nine seats have been proposed for STs and seven for SCs in Jammu and Kashmir.

This is the first time that seats have been proposed for STs in Jammu and Kashmir.

Delimitation is defined as “the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.”

In the Indian context, it means the process of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in the population. Only after this is done an election can be conducted.

The objective is to have equal representation to equal segments of the population and ensure a fair division of geographical areas so that all political parties or candidates contesting elections have a level playing field in terms of the number of voters.

In the normal course of events, the exercise is carried out every few years after Census to ensure that each seat has approximately an equal number of voters.