Choudhary, while addressing the gathering, recalled how J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina had approached him in 2014 to contest elections on a BJP ticket
Former PDP member of the legislative council from Nowshera and once a close confidante of former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, Surinder Choudhary, joined the BJP in the presence of party’s national general secretary and J&K in-charge Tarun Chugh.
“It is the PDP, which deceived me and not vice versa,” he said while accusing Mehbooba Mufti of ruining the party and pursuing the Pakistani agenda.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina and other prominent leaders, including former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta and former loyalists of the Abdullahs’ Devender Singh Rana, who quit the National Conference last year, were also present at the party headquarters.
Choudhary, while addressing the gathering, recalled how J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina had approached him in 2014 to contest elections on a BJP ticket.
“You all know that in 2014, Ravinder Raina had come to me, but by then late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had given me the mandate of the PDP. I told Raina that had you come before, I would have surely contested (on BJP ticket), but now I can’t cheat him (Sayeed),” he added.
“I didn’t deceive the PDP. They deceived me. Today, I am not here for any personal benefit. I am neither under any intimidation nor pressure to join the BJP,” Choudhary said.
“I am joining the party because of its policies, love, and respect and to strengthen the nation… we will work to ensure that the BJP forms the next government in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
“Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was a secular leader, but the Mehbooba-led party has not been secular and is pursuing Pakistani agenda,” he alleged.
“She speaks one thing while in power and another out of power. She has ruined the party and stands exposed before the public,” Choudhary added.
Those who joined the BJP along with Choudhary included block development council chairperson Bodh Raj, National Conference leaders S Gupta and Desh Roop Raina, and dozens of panches and sarpanches.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Chugh also welcomed social activist Bharat Bushan and his supporters into the party fold.
He said, “Choudhary was the face of the PDP in Jammu and his entry into the BJP has finished the PDP in the region. The National Conference has already lost its face in Jammu when Rana left the party last year and joined us.”
Chugh said that the people in the Jammu region have decided not to support the NC and the PDP parties which were “misleading” them with “false promises and dreams”.
He also termed the Aam Aadmi Party’s growing popularity in J&K a “balloon” that would not last long.
Chugh said that the BJP will surely form a strong and stable government in Jammu and Kashmir in the next assembly elections.
It may be recalled here that on March 30 last year, Choudhary had quit the PDP.
