Sampla resigns as NCSC chairperson, may get key BJP role ahead of 2024 polls

Asked if he could be entrusted with any key responsibility for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Sampla told reporters: “I am a soldier of the party. I will serve the party wherever it asks me to”.

Multiples sources in the BJP said party top brass asked Sampla to resign as NCSC chairman, a post he had been holding since 2021. The 62-year-old Sampla is also likely to be fielded from Hoshiarpur in 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Sampla was elected as MP from Hoshiarpur in 2014, earning the distinction of being the first Dalit leader of the saffron party from Punjab to make it to Lok Sabha. As he comes from Doaba region of the state where Dalits account for around 37 per cent of the electorate, Sampla was inducted as Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Narendra Modi-led Union government.

He was, however, denied the ticket in 2019 Lok Sabha elections as BJP fielded Som Parkash, a retired IAS officer, from Hoshiarpur. Som Parkash, who is now over 74 years of age, had won the election and is now a Minister of State in Union Cabinet.

After he was denied ticket in 2019, Sampla had expressed his resentment saying that BJP had committed “cow slaughter”. “Feel very sad, the BJP has done cow slaughter. You should have pointed out any fault. What is my fault? There is no corruption charge against me. I got an airport in my region, got many new trains started, got roads built… If this is the fault, I will tell my coming generations that they must not commit these mistakes,” he had said in a tweet in Hindi.

He was subsequently appointed as NCSC chairperson in February 2021. Sampla had earlier quit the post for a brief period as he was fielded by the BJP from Phagwara assembly segment in February 2022 Punjab Assembly elections. He finished fourth in the election and was subsequently re-appointed as NCSC chairperson after the election.

Before making fray into the political arena, Sampla spent about five years in Gulf countries working as an assistant to a plumber and on returning to India had started a cement shop. He joined BJP in 1998, and began his political career the same year as the sarpanch of his native village Sofi Pind in Jalandhar Cantonment. Later, he served as chairman, Punjab Dalit Vikas Parishad; state coordinator, Anusuchit Jati Aarakshan Bachao Manch, and chairman, Bharat Gaurav. He also served as chairman, Khadi and Village Industries Board, Punjab from 2009-12.