Vijay Sampla, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Punjab unit, on Tuesday said the reports about his resignation were false. “The reports regarding me [offering to quit as Punjab BJP chief] are false. I had gone for some work,” he told ANI. It was earlier reported that Sampla had offered to resign because he was unhappy about the tickets distributed for the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab.
The reports surfaced only hours after the BJP released six more names for the polls, in addition to the list of candidates the party released last week. According to Times Now, senior party leaders Mohan Lal and Satpal Gosain had also sent their resignations to the party leadership, along with Sampla. The state BJP chief did not comment about the other two leaders.
On Monday, Union Minister JP Nadda announced six BJP candidates for the upcoming elections – Som Prakash from Phagwara, Manoranjan Kalia from Jalandhar Central, Anil Joshi from Amritsar North, Parminder Sharma from Anandpur Sahib, Mohinder Bhagat from Jalandhar West and Surjeet Jyani from Fazilka.
The BJP is in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal in the state. The party is contesting for 23 seats in the 117-seat state Assembly. Punjab will go to polls on February 4, and votes will be counted on March 11.
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