A day after leaving Farooq Abdullah's National Conference, Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia join BJP

Rana, 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 Omar Abdullah.

Devender Rana (extreme right), Surjit Singh Slathia (on left of Union Minister Jitendra Singh) at BJP headquarters in Delhi (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: New Delhi, Oct 11 (PTI) A day after resigning from Farooq Abdullah's 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 in the presence of Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Hardeep Singh Puri and Jitendra Singh.

Joined my colleagues Sh @dpradhanbjp Ji & @DrJitendraSingh Ji in welcoming senior & popular Jammu leaders Sh @DevenderSRana Ji & Sh Surjit Singh Slathia Ji into the @BJP4India Family. pic.twitter.com/mad6MhEGZ4 — Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) October 11, 2021

New Delhi: Former J&K National Conference leaders Devender Rana and Surjit Singh Slathia join BJP in presence of Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan, and Jitendra Singh

Both the leader resigned from the membership of National Conference yesterday pic.twitter.com/nh7F39SHq8 — ANI (@ANI) October 11, 2021

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.