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With less than a month left for campaigning to end here, BJP's candidate Arun Jaitley is still facing one question in almost all his interactions with media -- Will sitting MP Navjot Singh Sidhu canvass for him?
The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha who is taking on Amarinder Singh of Congress, however, never gives a categorical "yes" or "no" answer.
Sidhu, who won this Lok Sabha seat thrice in a row for BJP, has shared an uneasy relation with his party's ruling ally Shiromani Akali Dal prompting his replacement with Jaitley.
Initially on the Sidhu question, Jaitley maintained that all supporters of BJP will campaign for him. But after Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur said her husband would not campaign in Amritsar, Jaitley said, "Before he (Sidhu) had left for Bangladesh, he had given me a different impression", without elaborating further.
The Sidhu issue has given some fodder to Amarinder to take a jibe at Jaitley.
He said Sidhu was a "loving MP" and he left Amritsar seat because Akalis did not let him carry development works in the holy city.
"The treatment meted out to the outgoing Amritsar MP Navjot Sidhu reminds me of the famous Eklavya story in Mahabharata where Guru Dhornacharya seeks his (Eklavya's) right thumb as 'Guru Dakshina'... Here in Amritsar also Arun Jaitely appears to have taken his 'Guru Dakshina' from his 'shishya' (student) Navjot Sidhu, who seems to have gladly handed it over," Amarinder said in a social media post.
