Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has practically decided to abandon the battlefield before a crucial battle which his party faces. Capt Amarinder on Thursday was offering one excuse after the other so that the party does not force him to contest the polls from Amritsar against Arun Jaitley. Right from the plea of campaigning for his MP wife Preneet Kaur in Patiala to invitations from other contenders to canvass for him, Capt Amarinder came out with a list of reasons for not contesting parliamentary polls from Amritsar.
His reluctance is being seen as a possible apprehension of defeat from a city he is virtually unfamiliar with, in political terms, and also an effort to make himself available for the Chief Minister’s seat in the Assembly polls, scheduled to be held after three years.
At the same time, the Permanent Invitee in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has also indicated that he may also contest from the holy city if the party high command wishes so, and is awaiting the decision of the Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“I have made my intentions clear to the party president that I am not interested in contesting lok Sabha elections, and want to concentrate on my own seat in Patiala along with campaigning across the State. But, in case, the Congress chief want me to contest, I will do so… I am waiting for her decision,” Capt Amarinder told The Pioneer.
The former MP contented that two members of the same family contesting on a few seats did not make a sense. “I think I will be more useful if I campaign campaigning across the state for all candidates,” he added.
The State party chief Bajwa, while welcoming Capt Amarinder’s “partial willingness” to enter lok Sabha electoral field from Amritsar, said: “Capt Amarinder will be an ideal candidate to take on BJP’s Arun Jaitley… the fight between the two will be an epic battle and the Congress will win it 110 per cent.”
Reacting, Capt Amarinder said, “It doesn’t mean that I have to contest if the state Congress president wants. I will do whatever Congress national president Sonia Gandhi asked me to do.”
It has been learnt that Capt Amarinder’s name was floated in the party circles by Bajwa, in a strategic move to push him out of State politics.
Till late in the evening, Capt Amarinder was awaiting any updates from the party high command on the issue who is in.
Earlier in the day, Capt Amarinder has shot off a communiqué to Sonia Gandhi, expressing his unwillingness to contest from Amritsar besides his inability “to do justice with the people of Amritsar as their MP for multiple reasons”.
Capt Amarinder, in his statement, stated that Sonia Gandhi offered him to contest from Bathinda or Amritsar about three weeks ago, and he had then clarified that he will not be in a position to contest since Perneet Kaur was contesting from Patiala.
“My presence is required across the state and contesting from Amritsar would simply confine me to one single constituency. I have already a long list of requests from the sitting and prospective candidates from all the parliamentary constituencies across the state seeking time for campaigning,” stated Capt Amarinder, while projecting himself as party’s star campaigner.
He also clarified that even if he contested and was elected as an MP from Amritsar, he will not be able to do justice with people there as compared to someone who would be local. “Besides being an outsider, I do not know Amritsar as much as someone from that area. I will not be able to spend required period of time there,” he added.
The former Chief Minister maintained that the Congress “had strong, powerful and quite influential leaders in Amritsar who can successfully take on the Akali-BJP candidate there. Besides, Amritsar is a strong Congress bastion and the party had won seat several times and during last time, the seat was declared in favour of the BJP candidate by fraud and deceit”.
Arguing that the party must field a local candidate who is well versed with the local issues and problems, Capt Amarinder said: “The people of Amritsar are already fatigued and frustrated because of an absentee MP and they will not like to replace one absentee MP with the other”.
“While the previous one was still visible once in a while, the present one if elected, will never ever be seen around given his interests and commitments in Delhi…A strong local candidate will prove to be the best bet for the party,” said Capt Amarinder, adding, “we have such candidates available from all the communities whether Hindus or Sikhs”.
However, his decision to stay back has not gone down well with his critics. They are openly saying that Capt Amarinder wanted to stay back in the state politics though his appearance even in the state assembly is a rare phenomenon.