Punjab Cong wants PM to take on Sidhu

New Delhi, Septebmer 4: The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee wants to pit Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency in the next Lok Sabha elections.

The party feels only somebody of the stature of Manmohan Singh can wrest the seat away from Sidhu.

A party delegation led by PPCC president Mohinder Kaypee and Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, which met the Prime Minister here on Tuesday, extended an invitation to him to contest the next parliamentary elections from his home state.

The delegation was meeting Singh to submit a memorandum seeking adequate flood relief for the state. PPCC campaign committee convener Ashwani Sekhri and general secretary Parminder Singh were part of the delegation.

“Yes we have requested the Prime Minister to contest from Amritsar in the next elections. He will let us know once he makes up his mind,” Kaypee said.

Incidentally, former Punjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla, who was defeated by Sidhu in the 2007 bye-election, was part of the delegation which met the Prime Minister.

Asked if Manmohan would be able to match the charismatic Sidhu in the poll arena, Kaypee said the party felt it would be a cakewalk for Manmohan Singh in the Amritsar constituency.

The constituency was a Congress bastion till 2004, when a political greenhorn Sidhu was fielded by the BJP from the seat to take on the then sitting MP and present Bihar Governor Raghunanthan Lal Bhatia. He clinched the seat by a margin of over 1.11 lakh votes.

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