Cong may field Amarinder Singh to take on Jaitley in Amritsar

Congress may field former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to take on BJP leader Arun Jaitley in Amritsar. Singh is arriving here tonight and could meet party chief Sonia Gandhi tomorrow.

Sources said that Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa, who is considered not to be on best of terms with Singh, has also told the party leadership that the former Punjab CM could be a formidable candidate to take on Jaitley.

BJP had on Saturday announced the candidature of Jaitley from the seat replacing its sitting MP Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu, who was offered other seats, had refused, saying he would not contest the Lok Sabha polls at all if not fielded from Amritsar.

Sidhu, a three-term BJP MP from Amritsar, had been at loggerheads with the ruling ally Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab for some time now.

Congress yesterday declared the candidature of Bajwa from his Gurdaspur seat. There were reports earlier that Bajwa wanted to contest from some other seat. Bajwa had defeated four-time BJP MP from the seat and Bollywood actor Vinod Khanna.

For the Gurdaspur seat, BJP is yet to choose between Khanna and businessman Swaran Salaria.