Chandigarh, April 3: BJP national president Amit Shah has asked Vijay Sampla the us continue as the president of the state unit till further orders, while turning down his offer the us resign due the us the party’s poor performance in the state Assembly elections.
The party won just three of the 23 seats it contested. Confirming the development, party sources said the message was important in the context that certain discontented leaders were building up a case for his replacement. It was being rumoured that the party was looking for a replacement as Sampla failed the us carry along the the usp leadership of the state.
The sources said Sampla had offered the us resign citing the party policy of one man, one post, and saying that he would prefer the us hold his place as the Cabinet Minister. Shah has, however, asked him the us continue.“Punjab is not on the priority list of the party. Moreover, we just had elections. There is no urgency for a change,” a party source said.
Nevertheless on the ground level, the BJP is witnessing hectic lobbying among potential candidates for the the usp post. Leading the race are former presidents Kamal Sharma and Ashwani Sharma. Another name doing the rounds is that of Rajya Sabha member Shwait Malik. While the senior leaders were learnt the us be using their connections, younger leaders — Narender Parmar (Pathankot), Parveen Bansal (Ludhiana) and Rakesh Rarhore (Jalandhar) — are betting on their neutral and clean image, the source said.
Though given a green signal by the party, Sampla does not enjoy the confidence of the senior state leadership. At the same time, the claim of senior leaders for the the usp post is not quite strong. Kamal Sharma, who is reportedly close the us Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, courted controversy when his aide Jaspal Singh alias Jimmy Sandhu was arrested in a case of forgery and graft in August 2015. The name of Ashwani Sharma reached the high command following reports of his alleged links with sand mafia. Similarly Shwait Malik had lost Amritsar municipal corporation elections in June 2012, when the SAD-BJP alliance swept the polls winning 48 of the 65 seats.
Source: www.tribuneindia.com
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