Amarinder refuses to fight from Amritsar

The Congress’ dilemma over fielding former chief minister of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh from Amritsar against BJP strongman Arun Jaitley got more complicated on Thursday with Capt Singh stating that he will not be in a position to contest the general elections since his wife and a former union minister, Perneet Kaur, was in poll fray from Patiala.

With Singh shying away from the elections, the Congress high command is still to come out with the final decision on its candidate against Jaitley who is contesting his first direct elections. 

Earlier, sitting Congress MP from Ludhiana Manish Tiwari had expressed his unwillingness to fight the elections, but had to finally give in before the party’s last word.

Even as he maintained he would live up to his party’s expectations, in a statement issued on Thursday, Capt Amarinder Singh said he would not be able to do justice to the people of Amritsar as their MP. 

He admitted that he was asked to contest the elections from Amritsar or Bathinda when he met the Congress president Sonia Gandhi about three weeks ago. 

“My presence is required across the state and contesting from Amritsar would simply confine me to one single constituency. I already have a long list of requests from sitting and prospective candidates from all the parliamentary constituencies across the state seeking time for campaigning,” Singh said.