Vijay Sampla relents, says ‘shall never let party down’

HOSHIARPUR: Days after he accused the BJP of committing “cow slaughter” after being denied renomination from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat, Union minister Vijay Sampla on Friday appeared to have come around. Claiming to be a loyal soldier of the party, “I shall never let down my mother party, BJP.”
Sampla gave the statement after meeting senior party leaders, including Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union minister Mahesh Sharma and Punjab party affairs in charge Captain Abhimanyu.Punjab BJP president Shwait Malik, party national secretary Tarun Chugh also met him at Adampur airport, where Sampla arrived from Delhi.
Sampla also met his supporters, who had gathered at his residence and welcomed him when he arrived there along with Capt Abhimanyu. However, when state BJP organization secretary Dinesh arrived reached there, they raised “Go back” slogans. As Dinesh retreated, Sampla came out and escorted him inside.
In order to calm frayed tempers, Capt Abhimanyu explained to the gathering there that Sampla was dropped “not due to any fault”, but to give him more important responsibility.
Sampla said the party candidate (Som Parkash) had got 38 false cases registered against BJP workers, which he got cancelled. “I was in power and got these false cases cancelled. Now, you please take care that such things don’t happen,” he said. Expressing complete loyalty to the party, he but blamed “some party leaders of the state” for changing the organizational structure just after taking over (party) command. He blamed them for giving wrong information to party’s senior leaders.
Claiming that he would not do anything which could hamper “Mission Modi”, he added, “While sitting among the workers, we have decided to work to get Modi back as PM.” However, his three-day old tweets questioning the party’s decision to drop him and committing “cow slaughter” were still there on his official twitter handle till Friday late evening.
Malik and Som Parkash too met Sampla at his residence later in the day. While Malik claimed the party was completely united, Som Parkash said he had already announced to take Sampla along for campaigning.
Earlier in the day, Khattar, Sharma, Malik and SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia had accompanied party candidate Som Parkash for filing of nomination papers.