Vijay Sampla quits as chief of National Commission for Scheduled Castes

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, July 18

BJP former state president Vijay Sampla (62) today resigned from the post of chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes. He said he had resigned to strengthen the party in the state ahead of the 2024 LS poll.

Leaders close to him said he was expecting some responsibility in the organisational set-up. A Dalit face of the party, Sampla met national BJP president JP Nadda on Monday before putting in his papers. Sampla had been holding the post since 2021. He had resigned from the post ahead of the 2022 Punjab Assembly poll when he unsuccessfully contested from the Phagwara seat, but he was reinstated after the elections.

Sampla is learnt to be eager to take the post of the election in-charge in Punjab.

Though he hails from Jalandhar, he is eager to re-contest from the reserved Hoshiarpur seat, which he had been denied in 2019 with the party preferring Som Parkash over him. Sampla’s aides are hopeful that making him resign from the constitutional post months ahead of the LS poll is an indication that the party now wants him to face the electoral battle.