Amritsar parliamentary constituency had witnessed the mother of all battles during 2014 Lok Sabha elections between the Congress big gun Capt Amarinder Singh and BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley. But this time, the constituency may not witness a momentous fight with the top rung leaders of the two major parties expected to stay away from the political battleground there.
Nevertheless, both the main players are looking for the winnable candidates. On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party — eyeing to improve from its 2014 performance this election — has already announced its candidate from the seat.
AAP has fielded party’s Majha zone in-charge Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who is also a progressive farmer and has been involved in activities related to welfare of the society, to contest from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.
During 2014, AAP had fielded a noted eye-surgeon from Amritsar city and Padma Shri awardee against the two bigwigs, and managed to get eight percent of the total votes polled. In July 2015, Dr Daljit was expelled for anti-party activities, and he later joined Congress just days before the 2017 state elections. He passed away in December 2017.
During 2017 bypolls, AAP had fielded Upkar Singh Sandhu who bagged 15 percent of the total votes polled, and finished third. Sandhu, who had been SAD’s Amritsar district unit head and also remained in Congress for a while, hopped on to AAP to contest bypoll.
However, Sandhu was expelled from the party in May 2017 for “anti-party activities” after he went public against AAP leadership when Bhagwant Mann was appointed as party’s state unit president.
Holding the fort since 2017 by-elections for the Congress, the sitting MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla is hopeful of securing the party ticket this time too, banking on his personal contact with the people, raising constituency’s issues in the Parliament, surprise inspections of development works, among others.
If reports are to be believed, Punjab Cabinet Minister and former Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu’s name is also under consideration. Sidhu shares a good rapport with the party’s local legislators, which Aujla lacks.
The cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu, who had been thrice MP from Amritsar on BJP ticket, dethroned four-time Congress MP Raghunandan Lal Bhatia in 2004. Later, Sidhu won 2007 bypoll and 2009 general elections emerging as BJP’s prominent Sikh leader in Punjab. However, he had to step aside to pave way for his political mentor Arun Jaitley in 2014, following his bitter relations with BJP’s ally, SAD, which opposed his candidature tooth and nail.
Jailtey lost to Capt Amarinder in his first ever electoral husting, and Sidhu was compensated with a Rajya Sabha seat. But he revolted against the saffron party, and joined the Congress ahead 2017 polls, and is presently a Cabinet Minister.
With Sidhu shifting to the state politics, there are reports that his former MLA wife may enter the national level politics from Amritsar. But, Aujla’s “closeness” with Capt Amarinder may work in his favour. At the same time, his failure to develop a rapport with the local party MLAs, especially from the rural segments, may go against.
Aujla, a 45-year-old young Jat-Sikh, was Capt Amarinder’s choice to be his successor in Amritsar, after the Patiala Royal resigned from his seat following the Supreme Court’s unfavourable decision on Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal, and elected Chief Minister in Punjab.
A former councillor, Aujla defeated BJP’s Sikh leader Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina by nearly two lakh votes in 2017 byelection. Besides, he had been working day-in day-out raising people’s issues including flights from Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, better rail services, GST on langar; welfare of border farmers, besides opening of Kartarpur corridor to mention a few.
But Aujla is at loggerheads with the state BJP president Shawet Malik, who is also a frontrunner for the party ticket, over the centrally-funded projects in the constituency.
After Chhina’s unsuccessful run in 2017 bypoll and exit of Sidhu, BJP is desperately in search of an apt candidate for the seat. More so because its ally, Akali Dal, has been proposing swapping of Amritsar seat with Ludhiana — which the party’s state affairs in-charge Capt Abhimanyu has categorically denied.
Among those in the race for party ticket include Chhina — who lost 2017 bypoll, state party chief Shawet Malik, and former state minister Anil Joshi. Besides, a local orthopaedic surgeon Dr Avtar Singh and former minister Dr Baldev Raj Chawla are also eyeing the party ticket.
Chhina is hopeful for party ticket considering his proximity with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, coupled with the Sikh face for the Sikh-dominated constituency. Notably, Chinna was recently included in the BJP's national level manifesto committee.
Malik, who is currently Rajya Sabha MP, has time and again given enough indications to contest elections for the Lower House. Joshi, who has been out of job after losing 2017 election, is also a ticket hopeful.
CONSTITUENCY AT A GLANCE
Amritsar constituency comprises nine assembly segments out of which only one seat, Majitha, is with the SAD. From Amritsar segment alone, Punjab Cabinet has three ministers — Navjot Singh Sidhu, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, and OP Soni.
Out of total nine segments, BJP contests on four — all from the urban areas, in coalition with SAD which contests on five seats — including one in urban and all four of the rural areas.
A look at the constituency’s electoral history revealed that Amritsar has remained a Congress fiefdom with the grand old party winning 12 elections out of total 19 since 1952, including three bye-elections. And the BJP could win just five, including three by Sidhu alone.
Demographics: Amritsar parliamentary constituency is a mix of urban and rural areas with a majority of Sikh voters — approximately 65 percent — who hold the key. Besides, the constituency also holds a great importance among the people, not only religiously but also culturally, considering the presence of Sikhs’ holiest shrine — the Golden Temple, and also the Durgiana Mandir, besides Ram Tirath.
Moreover, it is also strategically significant considering the main international border it shares with the hostile neighbours Pakistan at Wagah.
LAST ELECTION
Constituency witnessed by-election in 2017 where Congress candidate GS Aujla won the seat with a comfortable margin of 1,99,189 votes defeating the SAD-BJP combine candidate Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina.
Aujla has received 5,08,153 votes against 3,08,964 votes casted for the runner up Chhina. AAP’s Upkar Singh Sandhu bagged 1,49,984 votes.
LAST THREE MPs
2017 (bypoll): Gurjeet Singh Aujla (Congress)
2014: Capt Amarinder Singh (Congress)
2009: Navjot Singh Sidhu (BJP)