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Caste panel chief Vijay Sampla resigns amid talk of role in 2024 elections
Former Union minister and senior Punjab BJP leader Vijay Sampla stepped down as National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman on Tuesday.
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Former Union minister and senior Punjab Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vijay Sampla stepped down as National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairman on Tuesday, according to people aware of the matter.
Sampla quit the post, for a second time, allegedly on the directions of BJP president JP Nadda, who met the former on Sunday and discussed his “important role in the organisation”, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
The 62-year-old had earlier quit as NCSC chairman in February last year, to contest the Punjab elections from Phagwara constituency. He lost the polls.
“Sampla ji has resigned as NCSC chairman. Rajtilak ki Karo Tyari,” Sampla’s personal assistant Chaman Lal posted on Facebook.
HT reached out to Sampla for a comment but did not get one immediately.
A former Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha MP, Sampla met Nadda in the national capital on Sunday and was told about his “important role in the organisation”, the people cited above said. Speculation is rife that the former NCSC chairman may contest the Lok Sabha elections from Hoshiarpur, the people added.
However, a senior BJP leader from Punjab said there is little clarity on the reason behind the resignation. “Various theories, of all sorts, are doing rounds in the party. Let’s see what comes out,” the leader, who did not wish to be named, said.
A prominent Dalit leader of the BJP, Sampla began his political career in 1998 as sarpanch of Sofipind village in Jalandhar cantonment.
He also served in the Punjab government. He was the chairman of Punjab Khadi Board from 2008-12 and chairman of Punjab State Forest Development Corporation in 2014. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshiarpur and became a Union minister in 2015.
In 2019, Sampla was denied a ticket from Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat as the party preferred present Union minister Som Parkash over him.
He held the NCSC post from February 2021 to January 2022 earlier, before he quit to contest the Punjab assembly elections, and was re-appointed in April 2022.
