Ex-J&K minister Lal Singh rejoins Congress

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) Former MP and Jammu and Kashmir minister Lal Singh rejoined the Congress in the presence of senior party leaders here on Wednesday.

He also announced the merger of his outfit, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP), with the Congress.

While Singh was the founder chairman of the DSSP, his wife Kanta Andotra (a former MLA) was its president.

Singh is a two-time former member of Parliament from Udhampur. He has been the health minister and forest minister in Jammu and Kashmir. Singh represented Basohli in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

While the Congress welcomed Singh’s return to its fold, which will give a boost to the party in Udhampur, several leaders, including former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, questioned the grand old party for inducting Singh, who, he alleged, stood in support of the Kathua rape accused in the past.

Singh (65), who hails from Kathua district, rejoined the Congress at the party headquarters here amid the speculation that he will be fielded against Union minister Jitendra Singh from Udhampur in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Udhampur goes to polls on April 19.

Starting his political career as a student leader, Singh was elected as an MLA from the Basholi constituency in the 1996 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election. He was again re-elected as an MLA in 2002.

He was inducted into the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet as the minister for health and medical education when the Congress-PDP coalition was in power in the erstwhile state. After that he was elected as an MP in the 14th Lok Sabha from Udhampur in 2004. Singh was re-elected as an MP from the same constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009.

He parted ways with the Congress in August 2014 after being denied a Lok Sabha poll ticket and formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in presence of its then president, Amit Shah, in Kathua. Singh resigned as a cabinet minister in 2018, quit the BJP and subsequently, launched the DSSP.