With speculations doing the rounds that Congress might field Amarinder Singh against BJP leader Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, the former chief minister today said a local candidate of the party would be able to do more justice to the constituency.
In a statement issued, Amarinder said besides being an outsider he does not know Amritsar as much as someone from that area. "I will also not be able to spend required period of time there."
According to reports, Punjab Congress Chief Partap Singh Bajwa has told the party leadership that Amarinder could be a formidable candidate to take on SAD-BJP alliance nominee Arun Jaitley, who has replaced sitting BJP member Navjot Sidhu.
"I would not be able to do justice with the people of Amritsar as their MP for multiple reasons, besides not being able to contest from there at the first instance," he said.
He said that he had clarified at that time itself that he will not be in a position to contest since his wife Perneet Kaur was contesting from Patiala.
The former Chief Minister maintained that the Congress had strong, powerful and quite influential leaders in Amritsar who can successfully take on the Akali-BJP candidate there.
Arguing that the party must field a local candidate who is well versed with the local issues and problems, Amarinder said, the people of Amritsar are already fatigued and frustrated because of an absentee MP (Navjot Sidhu) and they will not like to replace one absentee MP with the other.
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