Chandigarh, March 20 (IANS) With speculation rife in Punjab's political circles that the Congress wanted to field him from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat against senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, former chief minister Amarinder Singh Thursday declined to contest, saying he would not be able to do justice to its people.
Expressing his inability to contest from the Amritsar seat, Amarinder Singh said in a statement here that he had made his stand against fighting the Lok Sabha elections clear to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
He said that he had met Gandhi about three weeks ago and that she had offered him to contest from Bathinda or Amritsar. He said that he had clarified that he will not be in a position to contest since his wife Preneet Kaur, minister of state for external affairs, was contesting from Patiala seat.
He said that his presence was required across Punjab and "contesting from Amritsar would simply confine him to one single constituency".
Claiming that a number of local leaders from Amritsar were strong enough to be fielded from the seat, Amarinder said that he was already lined up to campaign for party candidates in other constituencies and tying him up in Amritsar would not be good.
"Even if I contest and am elected as an MP from Amritsar, I will not be able to do justice with people there as compared to someone who would be local. Besides being an outsider, I don't know Amritsar as much as someone from that area. I will not be able to spend required period of time there," Amarinder said.
"The people of Amritsar are already fatigued and frustrated because of an absentee MP (Navjot Singh Sidhu) and they will not like to replace one absentee MP with the other," he said, adding that he had commitments in Delhi.
Shane Warne Death: Team India came out wearing a black band, kept silence for two minutes, paid tribute to Shane Warne
Former Australian cricketer Shane Warne has passed away. Both the teams paid tribute to him before the start of the second day of the Test match against Sri Lanka. Two minutes of silence was observed
US Election: What will Biden do if Trump refuses to leave the White House?
In America's 244-year history, there has never been a president who has refused to leave the White House after losing the election.
Bangladesh: 'Hindus are safe in Bangladesh'; Yunus's officers denied the truth; Know what he said on the ISKCON issue
There is a lot of anger in India over the atrocities being committed against Hindus in Bangladesh. After the arrest of Chinmay Krishnadas associated with ISKCON, it has come to light that Hindus have
Crisis on 5 lakh workers of Bollywood with a turnover of 2.40 lakh crores, if the lockdown is prolonged then there will be loss of 1000 crores
Due to the 15-day lockdown in Maharashtra, the shooting of films and serials has stopped. This has again created an employment crisis in front of 5 lakh technicians working on the set and other crew
IMD Rainfall Alert: Heavy rain in these states for the next 5 days, Meteorological Department warns
IMD Rainfall Alert, Weather Forecast: Winter has started in the hilly states and there is light snowfall in many places. On the other hand, in states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Bihar, the
RBSE 10th Result: Bundi's Nidhi topped the state by scoring 99.67 percent marks in class 10th, Education Minister congratulated her
Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education has released the results of class 10th. In this result, Bundi student Nidhi Jain has secured first place in Rajasthan's result. The student has secured 598 marks
Gayle opposes proposed ICC crackdown on bat sizes
Kingston (Jamaica) Feb 5 (IANS) West Indies' destructive opening batsman Chris Gayle Thursday expressed disagreement with the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) proposed crackdown on bat
Schools, Cinema Halls, and swimming pools opening Tomorrow? See full list
A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 22 to curb Corona's growing infection. Unlock stages were introduced to revive the stalled economy of lockdown. The country entered the fifth phase on the
Putin said - Modi is a true patriot: Russian President praised the PM of India, said - the future belongs to India
Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He called PM Modi a true patriot. According to the news agency Reuters, Putin said that India has achieved tremendous success
WHO: WHO alerted member countries regarding respiratory diseases, said this on the new variant of Corona
The World Health Organization has warned member countries about the increase in respiratory diseases and the new subvariant JN.1 of Corona. WHO has said that viruses are changing their form. In such a
