Vijay Sampla called to Delhi after talks with SAD leadership

Deepkamal Kaur

Hoshiarpur, April 17

Miffed over not getting BJP ticket from the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat, former BJP state president and ex-Union MoS Vijay Sampla reportedly held a meeting with Akali leadership this afternoon after which he was reportedly called to Delhi by the BJP party high command for talks.

Sampla was in a meeting with BJP national president JP Nadda till late this evening. The meeting makes his move of his likely joining the Akali Dal all more uncertain as he could be under pressure by the saffron party for not causing it any damage in the election time from its high prestige Hoshiarpur seat. The Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat has been with the BJP for the past two tenures.

Anita Som Parkash, wife of sitting BJP MP Som Parkash, has been announced as its candidature in the list that came out yesterday. Post announcement, a series of three tweets that Sampla posted and removing “Modi ka parivar” from his ‘X’ account led to speculations that he was in talks with other parties. Both Congress and SAD are yet to announce their candidates in Hoshiarpur.

It is learnt that Sampla held a meeting with SAD chief Sukhbir Badal in Chandigarh today and the deal was reportedly close to getting finalised when he got a call from the high command to see Nadda in Delhi immediately.

Sampla had also served as the chairman of the National Commission of SCs, but was relieved of the charge a few months ago after a meeting with Nadda. He had then claimed that Nadda had told him that he had been relieved of the charge so that he could go back to Punjab and get active in electoral politics.

Akali Dal, which has former minister Sohan S Thandal as its only option from Hoshiarpur, has reportedly been quite interested in inducting Sampla since he represents a Hindu face and could help garner sizable votes from urban segments of the Hoshiarpur Parliamentary seat.

Since he remained BJP MP here in 2014, he is learnt to have connect in the BJP stronghold segments, including Phagwara, Hoshiarpur, Dasuya and Mukerian.

Sources in his family said since the Congress too is looking for a candidate from Hoshiarpur, Sampla yesterday also got in touch with party leadership through former CM and Jalandhar candidate Charanjit S Channi.

May get chance from Anandpur Sahib

There also has been buzz late on Wednesday evening from the Sampla camp that he (Vijay Sampla) could be shifted to Anandpur Sahib as its candidate. The BJP already has several claimants from the Anandpur Sahib seat, including Subhash Sharma and Avinash Rai Khanna. The latter was, however, recently given the charge to handle elections in Tripura.