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| Punjab CM proposes, PM opposes | | Manmohan Singh won't contest from Amritsar | |
BL KAK
NEW DELHI, JAN 15
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, does not want to fish in the troubled waters of Punjab. Hence, his plan not to contest the parliamentary by-election from Amritsar.
On more than one occasion recently, Chief Minister of Punjab, Amrinder Singh, personally got into touch with the Prime Minister, urging him to contest the upcoming by-election from Amritsar. This apart, senior Congress leaders also submitted their "request" to Manmohan Singh to shoe his willingness to be a Congress nominee for the Amritsar seat.
The Congress supremo, Sonia Gandhi, too, was approached by Punjab Congress leadership in this regard. Since Sonia was conscious of the continuing bitterness between the pro-Congress and anti-Congress Sikh leaders and activists in Punjab, she reportedly decided against her Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, getting into the electoral arena as a candidate for the Amritsar seat.
A Ministerial source told EARLY TIMES that the Prime Minister would not allow himself to be fielded as a Congress nominee in the parliamentary constituency of Amritsar. Amritsar is the seat the BJP leader and former cricketer, Navjot Singh Sidhu, had vacated after he was convicted for causing the death of a man after a road accident. Amritsar constituency used to be a Congress bastion till Sidhu wrested it in 2004 parliamentary elections.
The Punjab unit of the Congress party obviously wanted to rope in the Prime Minister to boost the party's prospects in the Assembly elections. Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, was quoted saying in a newspaper report that his party would sweep the Assembly elections if the Prime Minister contested from Amritsar. Punjab will have Assembly elections in February.
Presently, Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha member elected from Assam and his term ends on June 14 this year. He had lost parliamentary elections from South Delhi in 1999. He was the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha during the previous BJP government's term. He does not have a problem in continuing as a Rajya Sabha member. His re-election should not be a problem at all, it is generally believed.
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