Devender Rana, the former head of the National Conference’s Jammu division, and another party leader, Surjit Singh Slathia, joined the BJP on Monday, a day after quitting from the NC.
In the presence of Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Hardeep Singh Puri, and Jitendra Singh, Mr Rana and Mr Slathia joined the BJP at its headquarters in New Delhi.
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Mr Rana, a former MLA and younger brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, has also advised former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on political matters.
Tarun Chugh, the BJP’s general secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ravinder Raina, the party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit president, welcomed them into the party.
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Mr Rana has been a vocal supporter of the Jammu Declaration, a joint statement by a number of political, social, and business organisations calling for the return of statehood to the Jammu area rather than the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre removed Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and divided the state into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
