Former National Conference (NC) leaders Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi on Monday. Both the leaders had resigned from the membership of NC on Sunday.
The induction ceremony was held in the presence of Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Jitendra Singh.
For the past few days, speculations were rife that Rana, the younger brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, will leave the NC. That finally came true on Sunday.
NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah accepted the resignations of both the leaders.
“Dr Farooq Abdullah has received and accepted the resignations of Salathia and Mr Rana. No further action or comment is deemed necessary,” the party tweeted on Sunday.
Rana was the most prominent Hindu face of the NC and had won the Nagrota assembly seat on an NC ticket in 2014, despite the massive Modi wave. Slathia too won the Vijaypur constituency in the same year.
Rana has been advocating for the Jammu declaration – a joint declaration of several political, social and business organisations – primarily demanding restoration of statehood for the Jammu region and not for the whole Jammu and Kashmir.
Talking about the recent killings of civilians in the Kashmir Valley, Rana reiterated the need for Jammu Declaration to defeat such forces.
“Jammu Declaration will make a narrative to defeat all these forces, those forces who want to run a diction plan in Jammu and Kashmir and who want to hurt the customary brotherhood there, which is mutual love. We will stand and strengthen Jammu and Kashmir, strengthen the brotherhood,” he said on Sunday.
In 2019, the Centre had revoked the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.