J&K Election Results: Devender Singh Rana wins Nagrota seat by over 27,000 votes
The younger brother of Union minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, Rana has retained his seat by defeating NC's Joginder Singh by a margin of 30472 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devender Singh Rana has won the Nagrota seat in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election 2024 by defeating his closest rival, Joginder Singh of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), by 30,472 votes.
Rana, the younger brother of Union minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, has retained his seat by getting 48,113 votes, compared to 17,641 secured by NC's Joginder Singh.
In the 2014 election, Rana won the Nagrota assembly seat as a candidate for the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, receiving 23,678 votes and defeating Nand Kishore of the BJP by 4,048 votes.
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Who is Devender Singh Rana?
A former key aide to Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and leader of the National Conference, Rana joined the BJP in October 2021 in New Delhi.
Younger brother of Union minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, Rana was a prominent Hindu face of the National Conference in the Jammu region. Despite the significant Modi wave in 2014, he managed to secure victory in Nagrota on a National Conference ticket.
After parting ways with NC, Rana had said that he prioritised the welfare of the Jammu region, which the Abdullahs allegedly disliked. He also claimed that tensions with the National Conference began when he pushed for the “Jammu Declaration,” arguing that Jammu needed its own identity.
The “Jammu Declaration” he advocated called for greater empowerment and development of the Jammu division.
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“I enjoyed the trust of the Abdullahs but as I raised the Jammu issues, a political lobby in Kashmir influenced them, particularly post-August 2019. This lobby pressured Abdullah against me and they also found fault with me. I was working very loyally and sincerely, but the bargain was that I drop the 'Jammu, Jammu' line. Jammu cannot remain subservient and deprived,” Rana told The Economic Times in an interview.
Rana, 59, is a graduate with a total net worth of ₹126.8 crore, including ₹28.1 crore in movable assets and ₹98.7 crore in immovable assets.
He has liabilities amounting to ₹6.2 crore. Professionally, Rana is engaged in business and politics, and he has no pending legal cases against him.
