Jammu, 24 January – Veteran leader Sat Pal Sharma has been elected unopposed as the president of the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday. This will be his second term in this position. The announcement was made by returning officer Sanjay Bhatia during a function at the party headquarters.
Sharma was first appointed as the party’s Jammu and Kashmir chief in November last year. He filed his nomination papers for the president’s post on Thursday as part of the ongoing “Sangathan Parv” organizational elections. He was the only candidate to submit his papers to Bhatia, who was appointed by the party’s leaders to oversee the elections in the region.
At the announcement event, Sharma was honored with a traditional headgear and garland by BJP national vice president Saudan Singh, along with Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh and other senior party leaders.
After being elected, Sharma expressed his gratitude, saying, “I thank everyone for trusting me to lead the party in Jammu and Kashmir again.” He called on party workers to come together to strengthen the organization, stating, “Together, we can make this party stronger in Jammu and Kashmir. We achieved the highest vote share in the recent Assembly elections, and I need your support to take this organization to new heights and serve the people of J-K.”
Sharma, who is 63 years old, was not given a party ticket in the recent Assembly elections but was made the working president of the party in September due to some dissatisfaction over ticket distribution. He has now replaced Ravinder Raina, who served as the president for six-and-a-half years and is now a member of the party’s national executive.
Born into a Dogra family in Jammu, Sharma is a chartered accountant. He first won the Jammu West Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2014 and served as a Cabinet minister for 40 days in the PDP-BJP government, which fell apart in 2018 when the BJP withdrew its support. He previously held the presidency of the party in Jammu and Kashmir for two-and-a-half years between 2015 and 2018.
Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh congratulated Sharma on his election, saying, “Under Sharma’s leadership, BJP workers will do their best to help the country grow, and people will recognize the contributions of the party workers from J-K.”
