AMRITSAR – The humiliating defeat of senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat seems to have triggered a blame game between the SAD and the BJP
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said yesterday that the SAD had done its best for Jaitley and had helped him score a big lead in two Assembly segments. Before him, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia had pointed out that the Akalis had helped Jaitley get an overall lead of more than 5,000 votes in their five Assembly segments.
When approached, state BJP chief Kamal Sharma chose not to speak on the matter.
The SAD’s move to share responsibility for Jaitley’s defeat doesn’t seem to have gone down well within the BJP. A local BJP leader said: “It is a known fact that the Badals had persuaded Jaitley to contest from Amritsar, promising him a cakewalk.
“They are boasting of getting Jaitley a lead of 5,000 votes in their five segments.They must remember that Navjot Singh Sidhu had led by 51,000 votes in these constituencies in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll.”
Another senior BJP leader said Jaitley had trailed by more than 3,000 votes in three of the five constituencies held by the SAD and “everyone knows why”.
Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu said it was the SAD leadership that had assured Jaitley of a victory and must take the blame for his defeat. “Everyone knows that Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was in charge of Jaitley’s election campaign,” she said.
