Surinder Choudhary: Champion of workers, now Deputy CM of J&K

Rajouri, Oct 16: From his days of trade union leadership to Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Surinder Choudhary has come a long way.

Choudhary’s name came in public circles during his days as a trade union leader when he led an agitation for establishing an agricultural university in Jammu on the pattern of Kashmir.

Choudhary, 53, son of ex-serviceman Jia Lal Choudhary of Nonial village of Nowshera was selected as a Work Supervisor in Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir (SKUAST-K) in the 1990s and later got promoted as Assistant Manager and was posted in Jammu sub-office.

However, Surinder, being a trade union leader, led an agitation along with others with demand for the establishment of a new agriculture university in Jammu on the pattern of SKUAST-K and later the government conceded this demand with established SKUAST-Jammu.

Choudhary resigned from the service of SKUAST in 2008 and joined politics to contest assembly elections from the Nowshera constituency on Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) mandate and secured over 12000 votes.

He then joined the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and contested assembly elections on party mandate from Nowshera and lost by over 9000 votes.

In 2015, the PDP nominated Choudhary as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC).

He resigned from PDP in 2021 and joined the BJP for a brief period.

Choudhary took an exit from the BJP and joined the National Conference in 2023 and was nominated as NC’s Central Zonal Secretary.