Two former ministers among five elected as BJP national council members

Two former ministers were among five senior leaders elected as BJP national council members from Jammu and Kashmir, a party spokesman said on Tuesday.

The newly elected national council members -- former ministers Shakti Parihar and Priya Sethi and BJP vice-president Ali Muhammad Mir, Rafiq Wani and Mudassar Wani -- are set to play an important role in the ongoing organisational elections, including the election of national president of the party, the spokesman said.

In the national council, he said, Parihar will represent the Udhampur-Doda constituency, Sethi Jammu-Poonch constituency, Mir Srinagar constituency, Wani Anantnag constituency and Mudassar Baramullah constituency.

The election process for the five national council members from J&K was held under the supervision of state election in-charge S Varinderjit Singh and co-incharge Munish Sharma, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, incumbent Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina submitted his nomination papers for the election of next J&K BJP president and is likely to get another term.

The spokesman said the election for the post of J&K BJP president will be held on Wednesday.

"The party has successfully proceeded with the Organizational elections proceeding right from booth level, then mandal presidents followed by district presidents. These elections took more than three months," he said, adding the new president and other elected party functionaries will serve their term from till 2023.

He said all the district presidents, state council members and five national council members would cast their vote for the election of the J&K BJP president.

Earlier, a meeting was held where the name of Raina was proposed for the post of next J&K BJP president which was immediately backed up by the written submissions by 20 voters present there, the spokesman said.

Raina expressed his gratitude to all the senior BJP leaders for the love and faith they have shown in his term as the J&K president of the party.