Ravinder Raina, who is contesting from Nowshera, donated his salary and now gives his pension to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine, as per his family. There are seven candidates more poor

Into his third term as BJP Jammu and Kashmir president and seeking a second term as MLA, Ravinder Raina made news in the last Assembly for one, taking oath in the name of “Mata Vaishno Devi”, and second, for assaulting then PDP MLA Engineer Abdul Rashid in the Assembly for allegedly hosting a beef party at the MLA hostel in 2015.

This time, the Nowshera candidate of the BJP stands out for another reason. In his election affidavit, the 47-year-old Raina has declared Rs 1,000 cash in hand as his only asset, with no other immoveable or movable asset – making him among the poorest candidates in the Assembly poll fray. The Nowshera seat will vote in the second phase on September 25.

Raina has, in fact, registered a decline in assets from 2014, when he first won the Nowshera seat, located in Rajouri border district. At the time, he had declared Rs 20,000 as cash in hand and Rs 1,000 in his J&K Bank savings account. Then too, he had declared no immoveable properties or liabilities.

As many as six candidates in J&K race – five of them Independents – have declared zero assets, including Vishal Kumar, Bishnah; Asif D M, Jammu East; Raj Kumar Lalotra, Jammu West; Shahid Hussain Mir, Handwara; and Zahid Mushtaq Sheikh, Handwara. The non-Independent poorest candidate is Sudesh Kumar, the PDP nominee from Kathua, as per data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms.

Another Independent, Mohd Akram, contesting from Surankote, also in Jammu, has declared Rs 500 in hand as his total assets.

Of all these minimal asset candidates, Raina is the most prominent. The former RSS pracharak has declared no savings in the bank, no purchase or inheritance of any moveable or immoveable property, including gold, investments, agricultural or non-agricultural land, and no house or vehicle. Raina has also declared that he has no liabilities, with his income-tax returns showing zero annual income for each of the last five years.

His only source of income listed is his “legislator pension”. Before the J&K Assembly was dissolved in 2018, MLAs earned a monthly salary of Rs 1 lakh, while former MLAs earn a monthly pension of Rs 50,000.

Raina currently resides at a government accommodation, which was allotted to him as an MLA, in the posh Gandhi Nagar locality of Jammu city.

While Raina could not be contacted, his cousin Rakesh Raina said that since 2018, when he was first appointed the J&K BJP chief, the sitting Nowshera MLA has been donating his entire pension to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Trust, for its charity work, with the party taking care of his daily needs including food, housing and transport. Prior to his appointment as the party president, Rakesh said, Raina would donate his MLA salary to the trust after meeting his own needs.

Those close to him say Raina has maintained this since before joining active politics. As an RSS pracharak in Rajouri’s Dangri village, he is known to have stayed at an ashram.

A BSc degree holder with a post-graduate diploma in “human rights and duties”, Raina joined the Merchant Navy in 2000 but quit in less than three months, when he joined the RSS. He worked as a pracharak for over a decade in the Rajouri district before contesting his maiden Assembly election from Nowshera in 2014. He had also served as the J&K president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP’s youth wing.

Raina’s father Pushap Dutt Raina, a retired school headmaster, and mother live with the family of his younger brother Sunil Raina, who works in the Army.

Raina highlights his humble living at his poll rallies, like recently when during a meeting in Nowshera, he put his hand in the pocket of his kurta to show the crowd that it was torn.

Raina’s political opponents are sceptical, particularly since has been an MLA for more than four years. But few question this on record.

Raina’s assets apart, those of his party colleagues have generally seen a rise since the last Assembly polls. The BJP’s 62 candidates on average have assets worth Rs 9.13 crore; the overall average of the 873 candidates in the fray is Rs 3.65 crore.