President Draupadi Murmu has appointed Gulam Ali, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, to the Rajya Sabha, report said.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-Clause (a), of clause (1) of article 80 of the Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of that article, the President is pleased to nominate Shri Gulam Ali to the Council of the state to fill the vacancy caused due to the retirement of one of the nominated members,” read a Union Home Ministry notification on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party lauded the appointment saying that now the Jammu and Kashmir community is being recognized after the abrogation of Article 370.

“The President on the recommendation of GoI has appointed Shri Gulam Ali, a Gurjar Muslim, from J-K, to the Rajya Sabha. This is a significant step assuming that prior to abrogation of Article 370, the community was literally not recognised and all social benefits to them were denied,” BJP’s IT Cell head Amit Malaviya said in a tweet.