Amarinder scuttles Jaitley’s bid to open Lok Sabha victory account

In a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Punjab, party’s senior leader Arun Jaitley lost from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat to Congress candidate Amarinder Singh by 102,770 votes. Singh who has been a former chief minister of Punjab, claimed that his victory was a clear verdict against the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance in the state. 

Brought into the battlefield by the Congress to take on Jaitley, who is seen as close to designate prime minister Narendra Modi, Singh after winning Amritsar said a ‘disconnected’ SAD leadership had ‘misled’ the BJP leader into contesting from Amritsar. Triumphant after the victory, Amarinder Singh said that one of the major reasons which failed Jaitley was his choice of the seat. 

‘Arun Jaitley was ill advised to contest from Amritsar given the high anti-incumbency wave which the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party government was facing in the state. He was misled by SAD, because Akalis themselves were disconnected from the public after being in power for so long,’ said Singh. This was Jaitley’s début in a Lok Sabha contest. Singh managed to garner 482,876 votes while Jaitley trailed far behind getting 380,106 votes.