The most vocal MLA of BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, Ravinder Raina, was on Sunday appointed president of the state unit of the party that is sharing power with the PDP.
His appointment has been done by the BJP chief Amit Shah.
Raina replaces Sat Pal Sharma who was recently inducted into the ministry following sacking of two ministers who had supported the demand for CBI probe into the incident of rape-murder of a minor girl in Kathua.
Raina, who represents the Naushera constituency in the state assembly, was the only MLA from Jammu to carry the Indian National Flag during the last year’s session of the legislature in Srinagar when anti-India protests were witnessed in the Valley.
He stirred a controversy in 2015 when he took oath as a member of the assembly in the name of ‘Mata Vaishno Devi’. Members of the opposition objected, saying there was no provision for a member of the legislature to take oath in the name of Vaishno Devi.
Protem Speaker Mohmmad Shafi intervened and asked Raina to take oath in the name of God. He courted another controversy when he slapped an independent MLA, Engineer Rashid, for hosting beef party in Srinagar.