Devendra Rana, Surjit Slathia will strengthen development in J-K: BJP

In a major setback to Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC), two big leaders of the party Devendra Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday.

Rana and Slathia joined BJP in presence of Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Jitendra Singh.

BJP general secretary in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir Tarun Chugh and its Jammu and Kashmir unit chief Ravinder Raina welcomed the leaders in the party fold.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "Two veteran leaders have been joined our party to give a new turn to the politics of Jammu and Kashmir. After the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, many development works have been done in Jammu and Kashmir in the last two years. Keeping faith in all those works, Devendra Rana ji and Surjeet ji joined our party to further strengthen the strides of development."

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given priority to Jammu and Kashmir. He said Jammu and Kashmir did not come to prominence due to the failure and negligence of the previous governments.

"In 2014, Prime Minister celebrated his first Diwali with the flood-affected people in Kashmir Valley. The development wave of New India is going on under the leadership of Modi ji," Dr Singh said.

Devendra Rana said that politics has a long journey.

"We had called for the Jammu Declaration and tried to make a political narrative from Jammu for the whole Jammu and Kashmir. During giving it a shape, we talked to all the parties and asked them to contribute to this. Because the people of Jammu have their own feelings, so we tried to raise the voice of Jammu through the Jammu Declaration," Rana stated.

Rana said he had spoken to the civil society, intellectuals and NGOs in this regard. "There was opposition in this regard, some people expressed displeasure with my decision but Bharatiya Janata Party agreed to contribute. The Dogras should also have a political narrative. There are many people who want to weaken the unity of Jammu and Kashmir. We have joined the party and we hope that we will get full cooperation to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Jammu.

Surjit Slathia said that he has been in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir for the last 40-45 years and is joining BJP on Monday.

"We will try our best how to strengthen the party and solve problems," Salathia said.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Rana emphasised that the party's "Mission 50" will be successful and it will register a victory in the Assembly elections with a full majority.

"The next Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir will become from Bharatiya Janata Party. With this belief, I thank both my colleagues, Rana ji and Salathia ji, who have joined the party today. We will work together and their induction will further strengthen the party in Jammu and Kashmir," Ravinder Rana.

Both Devendra Rana and Surjit Slathia resigned from the membership of the National Conference on Sunday.

National Conference President Dr Farooq Abdullah on Sunday accepted the resignations of Surjit Singh Slathia and Devender Singh Rana.

Devender Singh is the younger brother of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh.

( With inputs from ANI )

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