JOIN USProminent NC leader’s son joins Sajjad Lone’s Peoples Conference
Regional National Conference, on Saturday, suffered another setback as Hilal Rather, son of veteran party leader and former Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather joined Peoples Conference (PC) led by the separatist-turned-mainstream politician, Sajjad Lone.
This comes days after Devendra Singh Rana, the party’s face in Jammu, a close confidant and friend of the party vice president Omar Abdullah, along with another senior leader Surjit Singh Salathia, resigned from the NC and joined the BJP.
Octogenarian Rahim Rather has represented central Kashmir’s Chrar-e-Sharief constituency for a record of 36 years as MLA. His son’s joining the PC is a jolt to the NC after the exit of Rana and Salathia last week.
After joining the PC, Hilal Rather said his decision to join the PC was his own and his father never “interferes in his decision making.”
Junior Rather was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in January 2020 for his alleged involvement in a Rs 177 crore bank fraud case sanctioned by J&K Bank for his ambitious township project known as Paradise Avenue at Narwal Bala, Jammu in 2012. He was released on bail in December 2020.
The case which was probed by the ACB of J&K Police was later handed over to the CBI because of “international ramifications” of the conspiracy of loan funds diversion.
In recent years the NC had succeeded in keeping its flock together unlike its arch-rival PDP, where most of the senior leaders quit after the fall of their alliance government with the BJP in June 2018.
The firebrand PDP president and former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti has been blamed by the government of India for dismantling her party and luring and threatening its members.
However, senior leaders deserting the NC too has started now. According to unconfirmed reports several other senior NC leaders are going to quit the party in coming days and are likely to join the PC or Apni Party led by Altaf Bukhari.
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