Sham Lal Choudhary is an Indian politician and member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

. He was a cabinet minister in the BJP-PDP Coalition Government in the state of Jammu and Kashmir . Choudhary rapidly rose in politics. Hailing from the Dev Batala village of Bhimber Tehsil in what is now the Pakistani administered territory of

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

, he migrated to the border village of Chakroi in Ranbir Singh Pura. He currently represents the border constituency of

Suchetgarh Suchetgarh is a village in Sultanpur Lodhi tehsil in Kapurthala district of Punjab, India. It is located from the city of Sultanpur Lodhi, away from district headquarter Kapurthala. The village is administrated by a Sarpanch who is an elected ...

in the Jammu district, in the

Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly also known as the Jammu and Kashmir Vidhan Sabha is the legislature of Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir was dissolved by the Governor on 21 N ...

Education

Choudhary started his primary education in the Chakroi government school and matriculated in 1977 before attending Government Higher Secondary School, R S Pura to complete his 10+2. An outstanding student, Choudhary entered the SPMR College of Commerce in 1981 despite hardships.

Social life

Choudhary has spearheaded various efforts to help the poor. He was responsible for changing the Chakroi Development Committee into the Border Development Committee, giving the people a voice in the area's development.

Political career

In 1996, Choudhary joined the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) to represent the border population, and in 2000 won his debut Panchayat elections unopposed. BJP chose him as their party candidate from

for the 2008 assembly elections, which he won by a large margin. In his first tenure as MLA, the border district experienced its greatest recorded development. Choudhary was re-elected in 2014, and was eventually inducted into the cabinet. Choudhary lost the DDC Elections from Suchetgarh,this was the only seat in Jammu which BJP lost.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choudhary, Sham Lal People from Jammu district Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir MLAs 2008–2014 Living people Jammu and Kashmir MLAs 2014–2018 Year of birth missing (living people)