Devender Rana, Surjit Singh Slathia join BJP
A Day after resigning from the National Conference, Devender Rana, the former head of its Jammu division, along with another party leader Surjit Singh Slathia joined the BJP on Monday.
Rana and Slathia joined the BJP at its headquarters here 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 – 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.
Rana, who was a key aide of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdulla, said he joined the BJP because of the party’s positive response to his efforts to set a “Jammu narrative” through “Jammu Declaration” . Rana has been trying to bring Jammu region’s intellectuals, civil societies, leaders and members of trade & commerce together to further the interests of the region.
“ I pitched for the Jammu Declaration, which will be a voice of Jammu by Jammu for inclusive Jammu and Kashmir. It will defeat the votaries of the Dixon Plan who want to divide Jammu region on the basis of religion,” Rana said.
The Dixon Plan was proposed by Sir Owen Dixon, a United Nations’ representative who proposed assigning Ladakh to India, the northern areas and the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) to Pakistan, splitting Jammu between the two, and recommended a plebiscite in the Kashmir Valley.
Rana said he spoke to all political parties on the need for a political narrative emerging from Jammu and strengthening the ethos of Jammu and Kashmir and the country. “Time has come to have a Jammu narrative, a political narrative, after all it was the Dogras, it was maharaja Gulab Singh, who carved out the state,” he said.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the BJP has always ensured development of Jammu and Kashmir. “Their joining will give a fillip to the development works that began two years ago,” Pradhan said.
Meanwhile, the National Conference has got yet another jolt as over three dozen party activists, including a provincial secretary, two district presidents and two Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) corporators, resigned on Monday.
The fresh resignations came a day after two prominent leaders of the NC — provincial president Devender Singh Rana and former minister S S Slathia — quit the party. Both the leaders joined the BJP in Delhi on Monday.
Provincial secretary, two district presidents, two municipal corporators, one block president and several district and block committee members of National Conference from Jammu district resigned from the party and conveyed their support to Rana, an aide in the office of Rana said.
He said the leaders, who resigned from the National Conference include provincial secretary, Jammu, Arshad Choudhary, district president, Jammu Urban, Dharamveer Singh Jamwal, district president, Jammu Rural ‘A’, Som Nath Khajuria, block president Bhalwal Ashok Singh Manhas and municipal corporator S Sucha Singh and block president Women Wing, block Mathwar, Rekha Langeh.
