Devender Rana shifts ground for BJP in Jammu region, chips away at NC

That Devender Rana’s exit would hurt the NC was known; how much, his party of 20-odd years is realising only now. In his move to the BJP, the man considered the face of the NC in Jammu and a close lieutenant of the Abdullahs has now joined forces with elder brother Jitendra Singh Rana, who is in his second stint as a Union minister of state in Narendra Modi’s Cabinet.

The family belongs to far-off Marmat area in hilly Doda. Their father, the late Rajinder Singh, retired as chief engineer.

Six days before his Bathindi rally, Devender Rana, along with BJP state president Ravinder Raina and party general secretary Vibodh Gupta, held another notable meeting – a well-attended one in Rajouri district’s Darhal, again considered a no-go for the BJP with its almost negligible Hindu population.

BJP leaders were exultant over the turnout, one of the highest for a party rally in the area in recent past. The organiser was Iqbal Malik, who crossed over to the BJP from the Congress before the 2020 District Development Council polls. A rally by BJP sitting MP Jugal Kishore Sharma in Darhal two-three years ago had drawn only 200-300 people, a senior leader pointed out.

The NC has lost not just its main link to Jammu and “personal connect” with people from all communities across the province with Rana’s exit, but also other leaders, who have left in his wake. They include sitting corporators, former minister Surjit Singh Slathia and first-time MLA Kamal Arora, who had won on an NC ticket in 2014 from Bishnah despite a BJP wave.

Says an NC leader: “Having grown as a leader over the years, Rana has no match in the NC in Jammu province.”

NC’s new Jammu province president Rattan Lal Gupta asserted that his leaving would not impact the party. Pointing out that Rana was not the first NC leader to defect, Gupta said the party remained as strong as ever due to its grass-root workers who had faith in the policies of its leadership.

(From left) National Conference leader Rattan Lal Gupta , Congress’s G N Monga, Panthers Party’s Harshdev Singh and Monga’s party colleague Ravinder Sharma after meeting the Chief Electoral Officer in Jammu on Tuesday. (Express)

Congress spokesperson Ravinder Sharma also played down Rana’s influence. “Rather, Rana has lost his own individual image by joining an organisation that he had earlier opposed tooth and nail. The NC itself has not lost much as it did not have much of a base in predominantly Hindu-inhabited areas of Jammu division,” Sharma said.

On the ground though, few doubt Rana’s capability. Zaffar Choudhary, a prominent journalist from Darhal, points out that as former chief minister Omar Abdullah’s advisor, Rana had travelled across the length and breadth of Jammu and was accessible 24X7 to people.

Rana is also seen as a strong advocate for the rights of Jammu, which nurses a grouse for being “shortchanged” compared to Kashmir. As the provincial president of NC, he had mooted a ‘Jammu Declaration’ in January, seeking a consensus among different communities of Jammu for own political narrative.

He first became associated with the NC in 2000 and an year later, was appointed media advisor to Omar. In 2006, he became a member of the now-defunct State Legislative Council, and remained a legislator till 2018. Appointed political advisor to Omar when he was CM, in 2009-11, he won as an MLA from Nagrota even during the BJP wave of 2014.

The elder Rana brother has also been growing in the Jammu province, winning his first Lok Sabha election in 2014 against Congress heavyweight Ghulam Nabi Azad by a margin of 60,976 votes, and second in 2019 against another big name, Dogra royal family descendant Yuvraj Vikramaditya Singh (Congress), by a staggering 3.5 lakh votes.

Jammu and Kashmir has only had one CM from the Jammu province, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and no Hindu CM. With the delimitation panel suggesting an increase of six seats for Jammu region, compared to one for Kashmir – reducing the gap between the two provinces – and with Rana giving it a boost, BJP leaders are now talking in terms of a shot at power when elections happen.