Jammu, August 17: A day after the announcement of the schedule for the Assembly polls in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, former minister and a prominent leader of the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali met Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, a prominent Gujjar leader of Jammu and Kashmir, is likely to join the BJP on Sunday ahead of next month’s assembly elections in the Union Territory.
Zulfikar is vice president of the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party but he has been inactive in his party for the last few months as he was exploring possibilities of joining the BJP.
Son of National Conference leader late Choudhary Mohammad Hussain, Zulfikar secured victories from the Darhal assembly constituency in Rajouri district during the 2008 and 2014 elections, representing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He held a position as a cabinet minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government under Mehbooba Mufti from 2015 to 2018.
Importance of Choudhary Zulfikar’s joining BJP
Once a blue-eyed boy of the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Choudhary Zulfikar has a mass following in the Darhal Assembly segment of Rajouri district.
Although he lost the first Assembly elections as an independent candidate in 2002, he won two successive polls from the Darhal Assembly segment by a huge margin. Not only in Darhal, Zulfikar has influence in other assembly segments of Rajouri and Poonch district because he is a prominent Gujjar face in this belt.
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Had a nice Meeting with hon’ble @hmo Jb Amit Shah Sb at Delhi and discussed various issues pretaining to Rajouri & Poonch besides Political scenario in the Region. pic.twitter.com/HJFYNcLdyR
— Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali (@chzulfkarali) August 17, 2024
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