Adding royal touch to the Upper House of the Jammu & Kashmir State legislature, Governor NN Vohra on Thursday nominated two grandsons of the illustrious Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh along with six others to fill the eight (8) vacant seats.
From the PDP, the Governor nominated Vikramaditya Singh, elder son of veteran Congress leader Karan Singh while Ajatshatru Singh was nominated to the Upper House from the BJP quota. Karan Singh himself remained Sadr-e-Riyasat of the princely State between November 1952 and March 1965 before becoming first Governor of the State in March 1965.
Singh later served as Governor for a period of two years till May 1967 before taking plunge in the national politics. It is for the first time both the brothers would be part of the ruling alliance in the State and playing crucial role in the State politics.
Along with these two, Governor NN Vohra also nominated Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, employee leader Mohammad Khurshid Alam and Saifu-Din Bhat from the PDP quota.
Former State BJP president and senior party leader Ashok Khajuria, advocate Romesh Arora and RSS ideologue Surinder Mohan Ambardar were nominated as new members to the Upper House from the BJP quota.
Vikramaditya would be entering the State legislature for the first time and on the other hand Ajatshatru Singh would be staging a comeback for the second consecutive term in the Upper House. Previously he was nominated to the House from the National Conference quota.
Both of them were earlier denied mandate by their respective political parties in the run-up to the Assembly polls. Their supporters were not happy with the ruling alliance when their names didn’t figure in the previous list of nominations.
Vikramaditya Singh had emerged PDP’s star campaigner in Jammu region during the Assembly polls and covered lot of ground on foot to canvass in support of the party candidates enabling PDP to improve their total vote share in Jammu region.
Vikramaditya had earlier joined the PDP in the run-up to the Assembly polls in August 2014 while Ajatshatru Singh dumped the National Conference before joining the BJP in November 2014.