J-K BJP unit appoints 3 spokespersons

The BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit on Thursday nominated three leaders as state spokespersons and assigned important posts to several other members, who joined the party recently.

The Lok Sabha election is scheduled to begin on April 11 and will continue till May 19. Polling in the state will be held in five phases.

The appointments were made by BJP state president Ravinder Raina after consulting other senior party leaders, according to a press release.

The three new spokespersons are -- Lt General (retired) Rakesh Sharma, Abhinav Sharma and Ashwani Chrangoo.They all joined the party recently, it said.

The former army officer has also been appointed as in-charge for a party committee on defence and security issues, the release said, adding that Chrangoo, who is a prominent Kashmiri Pandit leader, is the spokesperson for the party on Kashmir affairs.

It said Abhinav Sharma has been also given the post of member in the election management committee.

Former legislators Gharu Ram, Pawan Gupta and Baldev Sharma, and a former minister Bhushan Dogra were appointed as members of the state BJP working committee, the release said.

It said former chief engineer Sat Pal Manhas and party leaders Darshan Singh Thakkar, Raman Suri, Nitish Mahajan, Ravi Kumar Bakshi, Abhijeet Jasrotia, Bodh Raj Rao and Jagdish Raj Bhagat are also part of the committee.

On July 16 last year, the party had announced a new team of office-bearers which included 11 vice-presidents, three general secretaries and 10 state secretaries.

The state BJP unit had also appointed its chief spokesperson and 10 state spokespersons .