Rajouri, Oct 16: A prominent political figure of the Pir Panjal region, Javed Ahmed Rana secured a ministerial berth in the Omar Abdullah-led Jammu and Kashmir government.
Rana, a National Conference (NC) leader and MLA from Poonch’s Mendhar assembly constituency has seen several shifts in a political career that started from student politics in the 1980s.
Rana, 61, son of late Babu Faiz Ahmad, hails from Kalaban village of Mendhar subdivision in Poonch district of Pir Panjal region.
He is the younger brother of late Masud Ahmad Chaudhary who retired as Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police and was first Vice Chancellor of Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University of Rajouri.
Rana, while pursuing his LLB from the University of Jammu started his student political career and remained active in student politics after which he entered the political arena of border district Poonch, especially in his native Mendhar assembly constituency.
Rana contested elections as an independent candidate from Mendhar in 1996 and secured handsome votes to stand third.
Later, Rana joined NC in 1998-99 and contested 2002 polls as an NC candidate from Mendhar registering a win, securing 29,000 votes and was MLA for six years.
However, he lost the 2008 polls against the candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by a margin of about 700 votes and was then nominated as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) by NC followed by his election as Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council.
He again registered a win from the Mendhar assembly constituency in the 2014 polls and remained MLA.
Rana was appointed as Pir Panjal Zonal President of NC in 2021 and assigned work for strengthening party in the Pir Panjal region.
In the recently-conducted assembly elections, Rana registered an easy win against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Murtaza Khan and has now been inducted as Cabinet Minister in the Omar Abdullah-led government.
