New Delhi: Days before Rahul Gandhi to enter Jammu and Kashmir to conclude his cross country march, the Congress lost a public face in the region.
Deepika Pushkar Nath, the spokesperson for Jammu and Kashmir, resigned on Wednesday protesting over the inclusion of Choudhary Lal Singh in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Nath accused the former Jammu and Kashmir minister of backing the Kuthua rape accused, and added that she cannot share the party platform with him on ideological grounds.
Saying that she was left with no option but resign, Nath expanded her charge on Lal Singh calling him responsible for “sabotaging the Kathua rape case in 2018 by brazenly defending rapists”.
Nath, a human rights lawyer based in Jammu, initially represented Kathua rape victim in the case alongside spearheading an agitation for justice.
An eight-year-old girl was brutally raped and murdered in Kathua in 2018, causing nationwide outrage.
Lal Singh had to resign as Jammu & Kashmir forest minister in the BJP-PDP government after he allegedly supported the accused.
Lal Singh floated the political outfit Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party (DSSP) after leaving BJP in 2019.
Bharat Jodo Yatra will enter J&K on Friday, where Rahul Gandhi will be joined by the union territory’s top leaders including Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah of J&K National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti, and MY Taragami of CPM, according to India Today.