2nd consecutive Budget session being held with 88 MLAs
Arvind Sharma
JAMMU, Feb 08: The number eighty eight (88) seems to be inauspicious for the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) as it is for the second consecutive time that the Budget session is being held with 88 members despite it being the full strength of the House.
This is for the second time that the Budget session of the J&K Assembly is not being held with the full strength of the House. Only 88 members have been participating in the session.
In the first Budget session of the J&K Assembly, 88 members participated as 2 seats in the Assembly, i.e., Budgam in the Kashmir region and Nagrota in the Jammu region, were vacant.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah vacated the Budgam seat in 2024 after he was elected from 2 seats, while the Nagrota seat fell vacant due to the untimely demise of BJP MLA Devender Singh Rana.
Now also, 88 members have been participating in the ongoing Budget session at Jammu. The lone AAP MLA from Doda, Mehraj Malik, is lodged in Kathua jail under PSA, while the senior NC member, Basheer Ahmed Veeri, is injured and has not been participating in the House proceedings.
“The AAP has approached the court seeking permission to participate in the ongoing Budget session,” the Speaker, AR Rather, informed the Northlines.
However, the court has not granted the AAP MLA permission to be part of the House proceedings. It means that only 88 members are participating in the House proceedings in the Budget session.
The first Budget session of the Union Territory of J&K Assembly was conducted with 88 members as 2 seats were vacant, and now the second Budget session is also being conducted with 88 members.
Earlier, there were 87 members in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, but after delimitation the strength of the J&K Assembly went up to 90.
Now, there are 90 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly of the UT of J&K, with 47 from the Kashmir region and 43 from the Jammu region.
The daughter of the deceased BJP MLA, Devyani Rana, won the by-election from the Nagrota Assembly constituency, while the PDP secured victory from the Budgam Assembly constituency.
