Former minister Sat Paul Sharma returns as head of J-K BJP

Jammu: Former minister Sat Paul Sharma returned as the head of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of BJP, a post he had held for two-and-a-half years between 2015 and 2018.

Sharma, 63, was denied a party ticket in the recent assembly election. He was appointed as working president of the party in September amid resentment over ticket distribution and is now elevated to the post of president, replacing the party's longest-serving J-K unit president Ravinder Raina.

Raina, who had replaced Sharma in May 2018 and held the post for six-and-a-half years, has been made a member of the party's national executive. He had failed to retain his Nowshera constituency of Rajouri district as he was defeated by National Conference candidate and now deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary.

Born in a Dogra family in Jammu, Sharma is a chartered accountant and won from the Jammu West assembly constituency on a BJP ticket for the first time in 2014 and also served as cabinet minister for 40 days in the PDP-BJP government which collapsed in 2018 after the saffron party withdrew its support.

“I am thankful to the central leadership for giving me this responsibility for the second time. I will try to overcome any shortcoming during my first tenure and will play my role to ensure the party can script history,” the BJP leader said.

He said the recent assembly elections gave the BJP "a historic mandate of 29 seats (out of 90) with a 26 per cent vote share as it made big strides across the Union Territory, especially in the Valley".

“I am a long-time party worker and we will try to take the party to new heights with the support of the workers and the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Sharma said.

Sharma was appointed J-K BJP president for the first term in December 2015.

It has been less than three weeks after the assembly election results in Jammu and Kashmir and the change of guard in the BJP comes at a time when the Union Territory is gearing up for the urban local bodies and panchayat elections which are likely to take place early next year.