Devendra Rana, Surjit Singh Slathia resign National Conference; Joins BJP

New Delhi, October 11: With equation changing in the political scenario, the latest to join the national party are National Conference, Devender Rana, the former head of its Jammu division, along with another party leader Surjit Singh Slathia. Both these leaders joined Bharatiya Janata Party after resigning from the National Conference on Monday.

 

Rana and Slathia joined the BJP at its headquarters in the presence of Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Hardeep Singh Puri and Jitendra Singh. Rana, who is a former MLA and the younger brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, has also served as a political advisor to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah.

 

BJP general secretary in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir Tarun Chugh and its Jammu and Kashmir unit chief Ravinder Raina welcomed them in the party. Rana has been advocating for the Jammu declaration, which is 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.

 

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.