Bikram Majithia is a two-time MLA from Majithia, an assembly segment in Amritsar.
Congress's Navjot Sidhu, who campaigned tirelessly for the arrest of Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia in drugs case, will be up against him in a head to head contest in the assembly elections due next month. The Akali Dal announced today that it is pitching the former minister from Amritsar (East) assembly seat, from where the state Congress chief is contesting.
Mr Sidhu is the sitting MLA from Amritsar East, a seat he won comfortably in 2017 with no big face contesting against him.
This would be the second seat Bikram Majithia will be contesting. He had won the 2012 and 2017 assembly elections from Majithia, an assembly segment in Amritsar, seen as his "safe seat".
In December, Mr Majithia, 46, was booked in a drugs case and later received anticipatory bail from the High Court. He is currently being investigated by a Special Investigation Team.
Mr Sidhu, who had declared that "he would not rest" till Mr Majithia is arrested, is yet to respond to the announcement by Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Unlike the 2017 elections, this will be the only seat in the state that will witness a high-profile contest. Me Sidhu's other big adversary -- former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, whose Punjab Lok Congress is in alliance with the BJP, is contesting from Patiala Urban.
In 2017, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh unsuccessfully contested against his predecessor Parkash Singh Badal from his stronghold Lambi constituency.
Sukhbir Badal had also successfully contested against AAP's Bhagwant Mann and Congress's Ravneet Bittu from Jalalabad seat in Fazilka district.