Amidst speculation that Punjab’s former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh may be asked to enter the electoral field from Bathinda parliamentary constituency against the sitting MP and Badal bahu Harsimrat Kaur Badal in the ensuing 2014 lok Sabha polls, the Patiala Royal has put an end to the same.
Dismissing speculation to contest from Bathinda, Amarinder has made it clear that he was “not at all” interested in contesting parliamentary elections.
To put across his disapproval to the recommendation of his name for the crucial seat, the permanent invitee of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) would Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on February 18, three days before the election committee is scheduled to meet on February 21 for finalising the candidates’ names.
“I will meet the party chief Sonia Gandhi on February 18…and we have a meeting scheduled for February 21. I have much before expressed my unwillingness to contest lok Sabha polls,” Amarinder told The Pioneer.
Only recently, Amarinder’s candidature was recommended by several members of the State election committee for Bathinda — the segment currently represented by daughter-in-law of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and wife of Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Badal.
Much before, the State party chief Partap Singh Bajwa was the first to recommend Amarinder’s name as party’s candidate from Bathinda against ruling SAD’s formidable candidate Harsimrat Badal “to confine the Badal family to Bathinda seat as they will have high political stakes”.
Harsimrat had defeated Amarinder’s son, Raninder Singh, from Bathinda parliamentary seat in 2009 lok Sabha polls by a big margin of over 1,20,000 votes.
But the senior party leader Amarinder has his own views. “Instead of contesting lok Sabha elections, I will be more useful for the party if I campaign in the entire State…and this is what I am going to tell the party chief in my meeting,” said Amarinder.
“Bajwa is not worried about the Badals. He is afraid to contest himself. He is hatching conspiracies to keep me out of the State politics. I will not fall into his trap. I have told the Congress high command about my decision. I can contribute better by campaigning for the party rather than contesting and confining myself to just one seat,” he said.
When Amarinder was appointed as permanent invitee of an ‘all-powerful’ CWC, his detractors comprehended his elevation as an attempt to take him away from the State politics. Proving them wrong, Amarinder has, time and again, manifested his say in the state politics too.
The sitting Patiala MlA, Amarinder believed that former Rajya Sabha MP and former State Finance Minister Surinder Singla and former legislator Harminder Jassi would be the “strong” contestants for the Bathinda seat.
“I think Surinder Singla and Jassi could be the strong candidates against Harsimrat for Bathinda,” said Capt Amarinder.