BJP dumps Sampla; he terms it 'cow slaughter'

Chandigarh, April 23
As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday chose to dump Union Minister of State Vijay Sampla for the Hoshiarpur (SC) Lok Sabha seat in Punjab, Sampla reacted strongly calling the party's decision a "cow slaughter".

"Bahut dukh hua, Bhajpa (BJP) ne gau hatya kar di (It is very sad, the BJP has committed cow slaughter)," Sampla tweeted in Hindi.

The BJP announced the name of sitting legislator and former civil servant Som Prakash to contest the Hoshiarpur seat this time.

Sampla had won the Hoshiarpur seat in the 2014 general elections by a margin of over 13,500 votes against his Congress rival Mohinder Singh Kaypee.

Sampla further tweeted (in Hindi): "Someone should tell my fault. What wrong have I done? There is no corruption charge against me. No one can point a finger at my conduct. I got an airport in my area, got trains, got roads constructed. If this is the fault, then I will tell my future generations not to repeat such mistakes."

Sampla remained the Punjab BJP chief from April 2016 till March 2018.

The Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance got a drubbing in the Punjab Assembly elections in February 2017 when Sampla was the state BJP President. However, he continued on the post for one year after the debacle.