No bigwigs by his side, Cong nominee Aujla goes it alone in Amritsar segment
: With just one day left for election campaign in Punjab, no Congress heavyweight or star campaigner has held a rally or roadshow in the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency in support of party candidate Gurjit Singh Aujla.
This despite the fact that several heavyweights have spiced up the campaign of party candidates in the neighbouring segments of Gurdaspur and Khadoor Sahib.
Unlike the election campaign of his main rival, BJP nominee Hardeep Singh Puri, in whose support rallies and roadshows were held by saffron party president Amit Shah, actor-turnedpolitician Sunny Deol, cricketer politician Gautam Gambhir and Union textiles minister Smriti Irani, Aujla’s campaign has been low-key since his candidature was announced.
He is campaigning on his own with the help of local MLAs and leaders.
Though, chief minister Amarinder Singh addressed a rally at nearby Jandiala Guru town, it was a joint event for the Khadoor Sahib and Amritsar segment nominees. Moreover, Jandiala Guru is part of the Khadoor Sahib segment.
Thus, the CM has not addressed any rally in the Amritsar constituency.
When Aujla filed his nominations on April 23, the CM was to hold a roadshow in his support in Amritsar city. However, Amarinder’s visit was cancelled citing his ill health.
However, Aujla managed to put a united face with the MLAs of all assembly constituencies in the Lok Sabha seat, barring cabinet minister and Congress’s star campaigner Navjot Singh Sidhu, being present at his roadshow. Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur was present in the roadshow as the minister was campaigning out of the state.
Aujla’s media in-charge Gurpreet Singh Chhina said Sidhu is likely to address a rally in the segment on the last day of campaign on Friday.
“Even as no bigwig held a rally in my constituency, we have outdone the BJP nominee. He is from Delhi and cannot compete with us as we are grassrootslevel workers,” said Aujla.
Aujla won the 2017 bypoll by defeating BJP’s Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina with a margin of around 2 lakh votes since the seat was vacated by Amarinder after he resigned from Parliament on the SYL canal issue.