Jammu: Devender Singh Rana, President National Conference Jammu Province and former Member Assembly, bid adieu to the party after 26 years. Rana tendered his resignation to National Conference President Farooq Abdullah and it has been accepted.
Briefing the media in this regard in Jammu, Rana said that he has resigned from the primary membership of the National Conference. Meanwhile, a tweet from the National Conference said that Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Salathia submitted their resignations to party president Farooq Abdullah, which were accepted. The party has declined to comment further on the matter.
According to reports, Rana intends to join the BJP. It is worth mentioning that Devender Rana is a leading political leader of Jammu province and has been associated with the National Conference for 26 years. Rana has been elected three times from Jammu's Nagrota Assembly constituency.
Surjit Singh Salathia is also a long time political leader of the National Conference and has been a former minister in National Conference government. Political observers say the resignation of such leaders from the party is a major setback for the National Conference and if these leaders join the BJP, it will gain more stability in Jammu province.
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In the meantime, NC's General Secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar has nominated Adv. Rattan Lal Gupta as the Provincial President of the party for the Jammu Province till organisational elections for the post can be conducted.
It may be recalled that Devendra Rana had issued a Jammu Declaration in recent months in which he demanded that the political and cultural identity of the Dogra population in Jammu be restored. He has made several statements in recent days in which he has stressed that no injustice should be done to the people of Jammu province.
