Sampla to meet workers today to decide next move

Sanjeev Singh Bariana & Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh/Jalandhar, April 25

Disgruntled over the BJP denying him ticket to the forthcoming parliamentary elections from the Hoshiarpur constituency, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla will meet his team workers in Hoshiarpur tomorrow to decide upon his future course of action.

Sampla, who has been in the National Capital since Tuesday when the party chose to nominate Phagwara MLA Som Parkash instead of him, had switched off his mobile phone. Responding to a call today, Sampla said, “I will return to Hoshiarpur tomorrow. My workers want to meet me and express their feelings over the current political scenario. I will go by whatever suggestions they give to me.” He did not specify what it could be.

Asked who all he had met in Delhi, he said, “I have neither talked to anyone nor has anyone approached me. I deliberately also kept my phone off. I even do not know if anyone was trying to contact me.”

After the “Bahut dukh hua BJP ne gau hatya kar di” comment, Sampla has gone incommunicado with his party leadership. Senior leaders are learnt to be trying different sources to reach out to the leader. However, he has chosen to maintain silence on the issue.

“Whatever I had to say, I wrote that day. I do not have any regret about it. I still stand by it or else I would have erased it. I really want to know as to for what reason the party has acted against me. Ticket is the party’s prerogative. No one can force them to change their decision. But if the party was to take such a harsh decision, they could have given me a graceful exit after telling me my mistake,” he said.

BJP sacrificed Sampla for an outsider: Arora 

Jalandhar: AAP Sunam MLA Aman Arora on Thursday said by denying ticket to Sampla, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had committed “gau hatya” (cow slaughter). Sampla comes from a moderate family. The party made him MP, minister and party chief. Sacrificing him at this time only indicates Modi and Shah are giving precedence to stars and outsiders to sideline him, he said.