New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may disappoint the Congress party in Punjab as he is unwilling to contest the parliamentary by-election from Amritsar, highly placed sources said here Monday.

"The prime minister is not going to contest the Lok Sabha by-election from Amritsar," a senior party leader and a minister in Manmohan Singh's council of ministers told IANS.

There were reports that Manmohan Singh might fight the Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar, the seat Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu had vacated after he was convicted for causing the death of a man after a road accident.

However, the sources admitted that both the Punjab Congress unit and the party government in the state had been pressurising the party leadership to advise Manmohan Singh to contest from Amritsar, which used to be a Congress bastion till Sidhu wrested it in 2004.

"The MLAs (legislators of Punjab) are very keen that the prime minister should contest elections from there. So is Punjab chief minister (Amarinder Singh). They are confident that such a move would boost the party's prospects in the assembly elections," said a senior Congress leader.

Amarinder Singh was quoted saying in a newspaper report that his party would sweep the assembly elections if the prime minister contested from Amritsar.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has reportedly bounced the idea off Manmohan Singh.

Punjab will have assembly elections in February.

Presently, Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha MP elected from Assam and his term ends on June 14 this year. He had lost parliamentary elections from South Delhi in 1999. He was the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha during the previous BJP government's term.

"As far as he is concerned, he does not have a problem in continuing as a Rajya Sabha member. His re-election should not be a problem at all," the party leader pointed out, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Congress sources also said the prime minister's close associates were also not in favour of the idea that he should contest Lok Sabha by-elections at a time when his government has crossed the half-way mark. Manmohan Singh's coalition government completed two-and-a-half years in November last year.

But the Congressmen from Punjab argue that fielding the prime minister from Amritsar is the only way for the party to return to power in the state. Amarinder Singh, who is battling a strong anti-incumbency wave, also has trying to convince the prime minister about the political gains of such a move.

However, the sources aver that Manmohan Singh is unlikely to oblige him.