Union minister Sampla is new Punjab BJP chief

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Dalit leader Vijay Sampla was on Friday named as the BJP's Punjab president, less than a year ahead of the next assembly polls.

Sampla, a first-time MP from the Hoshiarpur reserved seat, belongs to the Ravidassia community among Dalits.

Inducted in the Narendra Modi central government in November 2014 as a minister of state, Sampla, 54, has had a laborious past - having worked as a farm porter and doing other labour jobs in Punjab and in Saudi Arabia.

"I have worked in fields, done 'palledari' (worked as a porter on a farm) and was in Saudi Arabia for 11 years where I did labour (jobs). I worked as an assistant to a plumber and a mason. I became a plumber, technician and electrician," Sampla said earlier after being inducted in the union government.

Sampla started attending Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh meetings and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1998.

Punjab has a 31 percent Dalit population - the highest ratio among states to the total population.

Polling to the state's 117-member assembly seats is scheduled in February next year.

The state has a Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance government in power since 2007.