With more than 30-year association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and serving third term as Rajya Sabha MP, the senior party leader Arun Jaitley will enter as a greenhorn in lok Sabha electoral field from Amritsar.
To kickstart his election campaign in the city, Jaitley would pay obeisance at the Golden Temple on March 18 — Tuesday. His debut in the parliamentary poll match would come four decades after he contested his first, and till date last, election in 1974 during his student days in Delhi University. Currently, the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley would test himself in the political waters from the holy city by replacing party’s lone MP Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The saffron party’s decision to field Jaitley from Amritsar assumes significance more for Jaitley than BJP. Jaitley’s opponents have, time and again, targeted him for never having faced the electorate who otherwise has an impressive CV. On the other hand, the BJP is expected to gain what it has lost due to Sidhu — its ally Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) support, and the voters’ confidence in the alliance.
“Jaitley will be a major player in the next Government at the Centre and Punjab will benefit from it,” said SAD president Sukhbir Badal. Entering the political field with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — BJP’s youth wing, Jaitley joined the BJP in 1980, and was elected as Rajya Sabha MP in 2000 for the first time from Gujarat. He was subsequently re-elected in 2006, and 2012, and was appointed as the leader of Opposition.
Jaitley’s candidature from Amritsar threw no surprises. It was Jaitley’s election campaigning, management, and coordination with the SAD during 2007 Punjab Assembly polls that the BJP won 19 out of 23 assembly seats — a figure that surpassed all expectations and is party’s best-ever performance in the state. The list of probable candidates sent by the party’s Punjab unit had Jaitley’s name in the top for Amritsar parliamentary constituency, followed by Navjot Sidhu.
Jaitley’s candidature was announced at a time when the three-time MP Sidhu has made it clear that he would not contest the elections from any other parliamentary constituency except Amritsar. He was offered the Kurukshetra in Haryana, and New Delhi (West) seats, but the cricketer-turned-politician refused. Following Sidhu’s strained relations with not only the SAD, but also with some of the BJP leaders, coupled with his long absence from the constituency, unkept promises, and low winning margin in 2009 parliamentary polls, the party has decided to part ways with him by fielding senior party leader.
Bearing in mind Sidhu’s position in the party as “star campaigner”, BJP took no chance and selected a leader like Jaitley to replace party’s lone MP from State. Agreeing to party’s decision, Sidhu welcomed his guru’s candidature saying, “He is my guru...I will accept whatever party decides. I will not fight from anywhere else…I had never asked for a seat, and would never do….I had told the people of Amritsar that I would fight for them only.”
Jaitley will win Amritsar seat by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes: Majithia
Amritsar: Welcoming BJP’s decision to field Arun Jaitley from Amritsar lok Sabha seat, Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia on Sunday said that the party’s national leader would win the seat with heavy margin of 1.5 lakh votes and will be “voice of Punjab” in the Parliament. “Jaitley is not only BJP’s senior leader but one of the top brains in the country who will raise issues of Amritsar and that of Punjab in right perspective at national level. I expect that Jaitley would work to improve relations between India and Pakistan which will benefit Amritsar and Punjab due to enhanced trade ties between the two countries,” said Majithia during a press conference.
Targeting the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who also hails from Amritsar, he said that he failed to bring any development to the city, “but the holy city will be benefited as it has got a strong advocate to raise issues at the national level”.