Ex-MLA, 6 others join Sajjad Lone’s party

The Peoples Conference, headed by separatist-turned-politician Sajad Lone, received a shot in the arm when seven prominent persons, including a former legislator, joined the party in Jammu on Sunday.

Former MLA Zanskar Syed Mohammad Baqir Rizvi, former PDP spokesperson Abhijeet Jasrotia, lawyers Abrar Ahmad Khan and Irfan Inqlabi, Parshotam Kumar, Ashish Pandita and Nitin Jamwal joined the party in the presence of Lone and senior leader Imran Reza Ansari.

This was the first such joining for the party in the Jammu region.

Welcoming the new entrants, Lone said it was just a beginning and the party’s endeavour was to reach every nook and corner of Jammu and Kashmir to emerge as an alternative to the “twofamily rule” in the state.

Ansari said the party was rapidly emerging as an alternative of constructive politics and would fight the traditional system of “tyranny, corruption and monopoly” in all three regions of the state.

Rizvi won the 2014 assembly polls as an Independent from Zanskar constituency of Ladakh region and later became part of the PDP-BJP government.

He was appointed as a minister as well as the vice-chairman of the building and other construction workers’ welfare board.

However, he was removed from the post in April last year. Although no reason was given for his sacking, sources had said he was removed for ditching the PDP in support of its ally, BJP, during the Legislative Council elections a day earlier.