Two prominent NC leaders Devender Rana, Surjit Slathia join BJP

BJP sweeps or creeps!

• Devender Singh Rana turned to be expert in shifting loyalty and not thought about his relationship with Omar Abdullah.
• Surjeet Singh Salathia is a spent up forces and could not be an asset to any party, even he will be a liability for BJP in future.

JJ CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi Oct 11: Quenching the political greed to attain the power, once very close and right hand to former Chief Minister and NC young leader Omar Abdullah, the Devender Singh Rana along with deadwood Surjit Singh Slathia has shifted their loyalty from Omar Abdullah family to Modi & Shah and openly ditched the party on the name of Jammu cause. The ex president of Jammu province Devender Singh Rana has a little say on the people but ex-minister Surjeet Singh Salathia is an used cartilage, which is now worthless has no say on the public. These two prominent faces of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (NC) of the Jammu region formally joined the BJP at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Monday.

It is pertinent to mention that Devender and Slathia had resigned from the prime membership of JKNC on Sunday and it was understood that he would join the BJP as the indications were coming since two months earlier, when he started appreciating the BJP leader and Prime Minister Narender Modi.

Both the leaders joined the BJP in presence of Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jitendra Singh, whereas it was supposed that he would join infront the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda but such thing not happened there. Devender Singh Rana is the real brother of Dr Jitener Singh Union MOS and it is expected that one day Rana will desert Omar Abdullah for his political greed. I t is not new in shifting loyalty from one boss to another but this is very different.

BJP J&K Inchrage and General Secretary Tarun Chugh, Former Dy CM of J&K Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP President(J&K) Ravinder Raina were present on the occasion in Delhi but the absence of national president senior BJP leaders like Amit Shah, Raj Nath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and others has raised may doubts. Three time MLA from Nagrota Constituency Devender Singh Rana was the Provincial President of JKNC and the party’s face in the Jammu region.

Addressing a press conference after joining the party here, Devender Singh Rana said the Political narrative must start from Jammu for the entire Union territory to strengthen its echoes and culture.

“This narrative not only helps Jammu and Kashmir but the entire country. We are sure in the national interest the party will take people of Jammu and Kashmir forward,” he added.

He said there are some people who are trying to weaken the echoes but they will not succeed in it.

“The Jammu region has hugely suffered on all these counts over the decades and Jammu declaration is a way forward for respecting the urges and aspirations of all the people in Jammu and Kashmir” he said.

On January 30 Rana had proposed the ‘Jammu declaration’ a charter to forge unity and reinforce trust between diverse communities and divergent regions of Jammu and Kashmir.

Welcoming the two leaders into the party fold, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, said, “Both the leader will take forward the party development agenda initiated by the central government in Jammu and Kashmir,”

Devender was considered as a close aide to Omar Abdullah and served as his political advisor when he was the chief minister from 2009 to 2014.

In 2014, Rana and Slathia had won from the Nagrota and Vijaypur constituencies respectively on a NC ticket.