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.
Wayne Burt Group outfit signs seven MoUs with GE Aviation
Chennai, March 6 (IANS) Wayne Burt Group, a deep value fund with interests in aviation and othe
Allocation for women and child development ministry slashed
New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) The allocation of the women and child development ministry has been sl
Bahubali MLA Mukhtar Ansari was presented in Mohali court on Wednesday. Mukhtar Ansari was presen
Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde displayed sensitivity and empathy during his stay in his home distri
A video posted on social media by Mumbai Indians has sparked debate on social media even before t
After Kerala, now the speed of corona infection is increasing in Himachal as well. Here on Tuesda
The speed of Corona in China has become uncontrollable. Since March, there is a spurt in the case
Between the introduction of the One Country-One Election Bill in the Lok Sabha and sending it to
In the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, several major decisions wer
Unemployment among young people aged 16 to 24 is increasing rapidly in China. In much research co