Former Minister Zulfikar Choudhary joins BJP

Jammu, Aug 18: Former Minister and senior leader  from Rajouri and Poonch districts, Choudhary  Zulfikar Ali,  and his supporters  joined the BJP here.

Union Minister and J&K Assembly election Incharge G Kishan Reddy, BJP National General Secretary and Prabhari J&K Tarun Chugh, J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina, and Dr Jitendra Singh, Union MoS PMO welcomed him into the party fold.

Reddy said that the Modi government granted the rights to the ST community after decades of injustices. He mentioned the grant of reservation to the community for the first time after the revocation of Article 370 by the Modi government. He said that two crore tourists have reached here for the first time defeating terrorism.

“Brotherhood, peace, and development have replaced stone-pelting and separatism in Jammu and Kashmir under Modi. Stones in the school bags have been replaced by notebooks and laptops. New roads, highways, bridges, hospitals, three three-tier democracy with the DDC election have replaced nepotism and corruption.

Earlier, countless money was spent on papers, but it went to the pockets of few and was never spent on the ground for the welfare of the common masses, he said and further added that the Modi government is committed to working for the welfare of people with even more vigour,”he said

Tarun Chugh  criticised  Abdullah, Mufti, and Nehru-Gandhi families for ditching and doing injustices to the Gujjar-Bakerwal community for 70 years. He said that these parties banned inter-district recruitment hence prohibiting the community from taking the benefit of government jobs. “For decades, the voice of this community went unheard, and now PM Modi has heard and acted upon the core issues of this community. Today, the J&K has been progressing at the speed ahead of the whole nation, under the Modi government, “he said.

Ravinder Raina also welcomed the former minister  and praised him for his extensive public-centric approach. He recalled that as a dedicated public representative, the former minister brought many development projects for the welfare of the people.

Dr Jitendra Singh described  Choudhary Zulfikar as the carrier of a political legacy that will benefit the area as well as the party. He said that the Modi government strengthened the grassroots level democracy and progressed J&K on the development front. He enumerated multiple medical colleges, Bio-tech Park, Shahpur Kandi project while stressing that the Modi government not only initiated the new development projects but also brought to life the abandoned major development projects in J&K.

Zulfikar Choudhary, while thanking the BJP senior leadership for the warm response, said that he has joined the party with the motto of the welfare of the ST community and the progress of the Rajouri-Poonch area. He lamented that this area is more beautiful than most of similar places in the world, but was consistently ignored by the previous governments.

“We remained as a part of government but always lived in fear. We were frightened that if we wanted to survive, we needed to be part of NC. They terrified us of Delhi, but they remained seated in the lap of Delhi,” said Zulfikar Choudhary.

He stated that earlier, a person from a village could not afford kidney failure treatment due to lack of funds, but thanks to the Golden Card by Modi, no one is now afraid of costly treatment.” Earlier, under Indira Awas Yojana, a meager sum was released for just 2 houses in a village, but now almost all the needy in a village are getting handsome assistance under PM Awas Yojana,” said Choudhary.

“They prevent us from joining the BJP and criticize us on joining the BJP on the religious lines,” the former minister said and criticised the Congress for practicing double standards on religious grounds.