Jammu

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and MLA of Nagrota constituency in Jammu and Kashmir, Devender Singh Rana passed away on late Thursday night in a hospital in Faridabad, BJP sources said.

He is the younger brother of Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (independent charge) for Science and Technology, and Minister of State (Independent charge) for Earth Sciences.

Devender Singh Rana had won the 2014 Assembly elections on the National Conference (NC) ticket, but he retained the Nagrota seat on BJP ticket by a margin of 30,472 votes. His nearest rival, NC's Joginder Singh got 17,641 votes.

Rana won the 2024 legislative Assembly election by the highest margin against his rival.

No other candidate in the 2024 Assembly elections could manage such a massive victory against his rival candidate.

Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah expressed his shock over Rana's demise as he wrote and emotional note and posted their pictures on X:

The terrible news from late last night isn’t really sinking in. I know the last few years have been marked by our differences Devender but I prefer to focus on the fun times we shared together, the excellent work we did together & the memories. You have been taken from us all too… pic.twitter.com/QoANZOyS3B

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 1, 2024

In the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the NC has 42, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 29, Congress 6, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 3, CPI-M 1, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 1, Peoples Conference (PC) 1 and Independent candidates have 7 seats.

Six out of the 7 independent MLAs have joined the NC.

Rana had the distinction of winning all elections from Nagrota – earlier as a National Conference candidate.

He was one of the first engineering graduates in Jammu who opened his motor workshop and expanded it into a franchise.