Will continue to respect NC leaders: Devender Rana

Jammu, October 17

After ending his long association with the National Conference (NC), Devender Singh Rana, now a BJP leader, on Sunday said he would continue to respect former CMs Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah with whom he had worked for over two decades.

He termed the civilian killings in Kashmir a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan to harm communal harmony and said that India, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, would defeat the nefarious designs of the neighboring country.

“I have worked with (NC president) Farooq Abdullah and (vice president) Omar Abdullah for the past nearly 23 years. I have respect for both of them and it will continue,” Rana told reporters at the BJP headquarters where he was accorded a warm welcome after joining the party in Delhi on Monday.

He was responding to a question about Omar Abdullah’s recent statement that Rana’s departure from the NC was more of a personal loss to him, rather than the party, as he had invested a lot in him.

Rana, the younger brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, had taken over the post of provincial president of the NC in 2011 after relinquishing his office as political adviser to the then CM Omar Abdullah.

He, along with senior party colleague and former minister SS Slathia, joined the BJP in Delhi on Monday. “Politics brought me at a stage where I had to change the direction and way,” he said.

In reply to a question about the recent targeted killings in the Valley, the BJP leader said these were part of Pakistan's conspiracy aimed at harming the communal harmony and brotherhood in Jammu and Kashmir. — PTI