Jammu and Kashmir: Senior Rajouri leader Iqbal Malik, his supporters join BJP after leaving Congress

Senior Jammu and Kashmir politician

joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday, two days after he quit the Congress. Several supporters of Malik, including local Congress leaders and block presidents, also joined the BJP at the party’s state headquarters in Jammu.

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav and state chief Ravinder Raina were present at the event. Madhav said Malik’s decision was a wise one, ANI reported.

Malik, who was an executive member of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, had resigned from primary membership of the party on Saturday. In his resignation letter on Friday, he had said: “The party leadership has gone into coma. Nobody is here to hear our grievances.”

Malik has previously contested the Assembly elections from the Darhal constituency in Rajouri. He was a Congress member for over a decade.

Jammu and Kashmir, currently under President’s Rule, is expected to have Assembly elections later this year. The state’s last elected government, run by a coalition of the Peoples Democratic Party and the BJP, had collapsed in June 2018.