Amritsar : The Congress is determined to take the election battle into the BJP camp. It is likely to field former chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh against senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley from Amritsar. Singh was earlier not in the loop, but the party has now asked him to contest as he alone can prevent a BJP walkover in a seat that has been a Congress bastion in the past, party sources said.
Though Amrinder’s pocket borough is Patiala, he would not be perceived as a rank ‘outsider’ in Amritsar, as he is a household name in Punjab. Jaitley, however, is more likely to attract the ‘outsider’ tag, though his mother is from Amritsar.
The BJP had on Saturday announced the candidature of Jaitley from Amritsar, replacing its sitting MP Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu, who was offered other seats, had refused, saying he would not contest the Lok Sabha polls at all if not fielded from Amritsar. Sidhu, a three-term BJP MP from Amritsar, had been at loggerheads with the ruling ally Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab for some time.