Amritsar: The battle for Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency is in fact a contest between two generations octogenarian politician Raghunandan Lal Bhatia of Congress seeking his seventh win pitted against 41-year-old former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu testing electoral waters for the first time.

Sidhu has pleasant memories of Amritsar. It was here that his century against Clive Lloyd-led West Indies earned him a test cap in 1983. But will the political pitch in this Golden Temple town prove lucky for him?

Elections 2004-The Drama unfolds...
Political Parties in India



Sidhu may have successfully played yorkers and googlies on the cricket pitch, but the political turn is an entirely different ball game. No one perhaps realises this better than him.

He has a near-iconic status with the youth in the constituency, no doubt. He is drawing crowds during his door-to-door campaign. But will this translate into votes?

There are enough worrying signals for Sidhu. First, he is trying to shed the tag of an "outsider". The former cricketer is actually from Patiala and secondly, he is getting a cold response from local BJP leadership, which did not take kindly to his nomination at the expense of party veterans.

Sidhu is going the whole hog to woo the electorate, but BJP activists are moving half-heartedly. Even many senior leaders have not yet joined the election campaign with Sidhu.

"Most of the party workers did not come out of their houses yet for campaign in favour of Sidhu. Even many BJP ex-councillors are annoyed with the party as they were not invited for Sidhu's campaign," said an ex-councillor of BJP.

Even State BJP president Avinash Rai Khanna has not yet visited Amritsar to campaign for Sidhu. Senior State BJP leader Blaramjidas Tandon, who was a hot contender for nomination, had visited the city only once.

Among other front-runners for nomination were local leader and former Health Minister Baldev Parkash Chawla and former MLA Laxmi Kanta Chawla.

The main reason behind the resignation of former State BJP president Daya Singh Sodhi was that BJP high command had ignored the local leadership and brought "outsider" Sidhu in Amritsar to contest Lok Sabha seat.

When asked to comment on this, Sidhu said, "I would not like to say anything on this issue, but I have the blessing of Tandonji who will shortly join my election campaign."

A senior local BJP leader said, "All local leaders are not happy with Sidhu and feel injustice was done to them. Local leadership considers Sidhu an outsider. This is one of the major reasons they are not working with Sidhu wholeheartedly."

A veteran BJP worker said BJP has not appointed booth and ward supervisors and there is no systematic campaign.

The grudge of local BJP leaders is that Sidhu's name was proposed by SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) president Parkash Singh Badal and it was not the choice of BJP leadership.

The BJP high command had at first toyed with the idea of fielding former deputy commissioner of Amritsar Sarabjit Singh, who recently joined the party, for the seat, but his name was stuck off when Badal raised strong objection since Sarbajit Singh has been critical of Akali leadership and has accused it of being responsible for "Operation Black Thunder" in 1988 on Golden Temple in his recently authored book, said a local BJP leader.

Sidhu, however said, "I have strong faith in the local leadership and what they are doing certainly would be in favour of my party. I have strong reasons to ask for vote since my Congress opponent, during his six tenures, has done nothing no visible development or anything concrete for the upliftment of poor strata of the society.

"If I become MP, surely I will bring sea changes in the city and my priority would be to do the needful for the poor people of the city by providing them maximum job avenues," said the cricketer, belying his little exposure to politics.

Bhatia said, "No doubt Sidhu is going from school to school to draw crowd of his fans, but they are surely not his voters. Since no parent would vote for Sidhu on the advise of their children, whom Sidhu is visiting in schools, streets and play grounds."

Bhatia disagreed that his age did not favour him. "No doubt I am 84, but I am still active enough to serve the masses. It is only because I had done something for the holy city of Amritsar that its people elected me six times. Otherwise, they would have rejected me all the time."