Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Vijay Sampla (54) has been appointed as the Punjab unit president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday. National BJP president Amit Shah made the formal announcement.
Sampla, a Dalit leader from Punjab’s Doaba belt, replaces Kamal Sharma who had already completed his term as state president in the month of December last year.
Sampla became a member of Parliament from Hoshiarpur constituency in the 2014 parliament polls and was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join his cabinet.
Sampla started his political career as sarpanch of Sofi village in Jalandhar and also worked as a plumber in Saudi Arabia before joining BJP in 1998.
Sampla belongs to the group of Avinash Rai Khanna who is Rajya Sabha MP and is also in-charge of party affairs in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan.