Senior leader and party MLA Sat Sharma was today appointed the new BJP state president after he was unanimously elected for the top party post.
Sat Sharma, MLA from Jammu West assembly constituency, was elected unopposed by executive members of BJP as new president at a function held at party headquarters here.
He replaces Jugal Kishore Sharma, the sitting member Parliament of the party from Jammu Poonch seat, as BJP head in Jammu and Kashmir.
The change in leadership comes at a time when the state is gearing up for urban local and other civic bodies, dates for which are yet to be announced.
The saffron party has recently appointed new state chiefs in Kerala, Assam and West Bengal, the three states going to assembly polls in the first half of the next year.
Sharma had earlier contested and won the Jammu West Assembly seat with over 50,000 votes.
He has also played a major role in party's victory in the recently concluded elections to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC).
A chartered accountant by profession, Sharma was earlier the vice president of the party in Jammu and Kashmir. Soon after his election Sharma said he would work to further strengthen the party at the grassroots level.
"I will follow the footsteps of my predecessors and would work towards strengthening the party at the grassroots level," Sharma told party workers soon after his election.
The party is posed to face a litmus test in the upcoming elections to the civic bodies in the state.
"My priorities would include making the party victorious in the upcoming elections of the elections to the civic bodies in the state," Sharma said.
Kishore has so far been the most successful BJP president in the state as it was under his leadership that party won three Parliament seats and 25 seats in the state assembly thus becoming a part of the ruling coalition in the state for the first time.
Speaking on the occasion senior BJP leader and deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh expressed hope that party would achieve more heights under the leadership of new president.
"Sat Sharma is highly educated and a leader who started from the ground level. He has held various posts in the party and is known personally to everyone. We are hopeful that party would achieve more heights under his leadership," Singh said.
