Days after two senior leaders from Jammu—Devendra Rana and SS Slathia—left the National Conference (NC) and joined the BJP, the NC suffered another setback on Saturday. Hilal Ahmed Rather, son of senior NC leader and former finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather, joined the People’s Conference (PC) led by Sajad Lone in Srinagar.
Referring to Rather as his younger brother, Lone had said a few years ago that he had asked him when he was joining the PC. “Today my younger son has joined our caravan,’’ he said. “I want to tell you that the PC has arrived.”
He said there are many soothsayers who refuse to see the reality as it exists because of an old mindset and want to create reality as they see it. “I want to tell those delusional people we have come and we have arrived and inshallah we will conquer.”
Rather is currently on bail for his alleged involvement in misappropriation of crores of rupees from the term loans sanctioned by J&K Bank for his ambitious township project known as Paradise Avenue at Narwal Bala, Jammu in 2012.
Rather said he respects his father and is proud of him but joining the PC is his own decision. “Right from my early days, my father has been magnanimous and always told me that I should take my own decisions,’’ he said. “Today I have also made my own decision. I have not consulted him, I respect where he is.”
When asked why he preferred the PC over other parties, he said: "As Sajad sahab said, our association is quite old."
The PC quit the five-party Gupkar Alliance led by Farooq Abdullah that demanded the restoration of Article 370 and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir in December last year.
Ever since, several political leaders have joined the party including former legislators and ministers like Basharat Bukhari, Nizamuddin Bhat, Javid Baig, Imran Ansari and several second rung political leaders and grassroot workers.
The PC, which won two seats in the last assembly polls in J&K, had allied with the BJP which formed an alliance with the PDP. The alliance collapsed in June 2018 and the former state had come under the Governor’s rule and later under the President's rule. The events ultimately paved the way for revocation of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.
