Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly

Legislative Assembly of Jammu & Kashmir (Vidhan Sabha of Jammu & Kashmir)
Type
Type	Lower House
History
Founded	1957
Leadership
Speaker of the Assembly	Kavinder Gupta, BJP
Deputy Speaker of the Assembly	Nazir Ahmad Khan Gurezi, JK NC
Leader of Assembly(Chief Minister)	Mehbooba Mufti, MLA (Anantnag) [1], JK PDP
Deputy Leader of Assembly(Deputy Chief Minister)	Nirmal Kumar Singh, BJP
Opposition Leader	Omar Abdullah, JK NC
Structure
Seats	89 (87 elected; 2 nominated)
Political groups	JK PDP: 28 seats + 1 nominated   BJP: 25 seats + 1 nominated   JK NC: 15 seats   INC: 12 seats   JK PC: 2 seats   CPI (M): 1 seat   JK PDF: 1 seat   Independent: 3 seats
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	2014

The Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir (also known as the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha) is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is known as the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislature. It has 87 members.

History

Praja Sabha

The first legislature of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, called the Praja Sabha, was established by the government of the Maharaja Hari Singh in 1934.^[2]

The first election in 1934 saw the Muslim Conference capture 14 out of the 21 seats reserved for Muslims. The National Conference boycotted the 1947 election.^[3]

Post-accession

After the accession of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to the Union of India in 1947, the Maharaja had to cede powers to a popular government headed by Sheikh Abdullah. With free democratic elections held for the first time in the state's history, the National Conference won a majority of seats in a new constituent assembly and Sheikh Abdullah became an elected head of government.

In 1957, a new constitution was adopted by the constituent assembly, which established a bicameral legislature.^[2]

Composition

The Legislative Assembly was initially composed of 100 members, later increased to 111 by the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir (Twentieth Amendment) Act of 1988.^[2] Of these, 24 seats are designated for the territorial constituencies of the state that were occupied by Pakistan in 1947.^[2][4][5] These seats remain officially vacant as per section 48 of the state constitution.^[2][5] These seats are not taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the Assembly, especially for deciding quorum and voting majorities for legislation and government formation.^[2][5] Hence the total contestable and filled seats of the assembly are presently 87.

The Kashmir valley region has 46 seats, the Jammu region has 37 seats and the Ladakh region has 4 seats.^[6]

Two women may be nominated as members by the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir if he is of the opinion that women are not adequately represented.^[2]

Tenure and functions

Members of the Legislative Assembly are elected for a six-year term. The seats are filled by direct election. The assembly may be dissolved before the completion of the six-year term by the Governor upon the advice of the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. The Governor may also convene special sessions of both houses of the state legislature.

Office bearers

The Assembly is convened and administered by the Speaker. The leader of the house is usually the Chief Minister, who is the leader of the party (or coalition of parties) whose members constitute a majority. The leader of the opposition represents the party (or coalition of parties) that has won the second-largest number of seats.

• Speaker of the Assembly: Kavinder Gupta, BJP

Members

Attack on the State Assembly Complex

On 1 October 2001 armed terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed carried out an attack on the Jammu and Kashmir State Legislative Assembly Complex in Srinagar using a car bomb and three suicide bombers .^[9][10]

Political parties

Summary of the November–December 2014 Jammu and Kashmir state assembly election results

Party	Flag	Seats	+/–
People's Democratic Party		28	7
Bharatiya Janata Party		25	14
National Conference		15	13
Indian National Congress		12	5
Jammu & Kashmir People's Conference		2	2
Communist Party of India (Marxist)		1	0
People's Democratic Front		1
Independents		3	1
Total (turnout 60.5%)		87
Source: Electoral Commission of India

See also

• Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 2014
• Jammu district
• Poonch district
• Rajouri district
• Samba district
• List of Constituencies of the Lok Sabha
• Jammu (Lok Sabha constituency)

References