Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal today said senior Congress leader Capt Amarinder Singh seemed to be running away from the contest in Amritsar and was only interested in photo opportunities in order to create an appropriate scrap book for the perusal of the party high command.
In a statement here, the SAD President said it was strange that Capt Singh was least interested in campaigning in Amritsar from where he was contesting the forthcoming election. "He appeared in Amritsar some days back and promptly disappeared after a press conference. Today after a number of days we hear he is again coming to Amritsar to address yet another press conference".
Badal said this kind of behaviour indicated that Capt Singh was only interested in holding press conferences which he could present as activities to the party high command. "He is in the habit of holding such press conferences and even road shows in order to showcase his alleged popularity but never holds public rallies and meetings which would expose his real standing among the people", the SAD President said.Stating that Capt Amarinder was insulting the people of Amritsar by refusing to be present among them, he said the people would giving the "absentee maharaja" a befitting reply at the hustings.
The SAD President said the truth of the matter was that Capt Singh had been forced to contest the polls despite the fact that he had publically stated that he was not interested in doing so.
He said now that the Congress leader was contesting the polls, he was more interested in ensuring that his bete noire and Pradesh Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa, who was contesting from Gurdaspur constituency, should lose the elections with a big margin. "In fact all the senior Congress leaders are pitted against each other. All of them realise that the next leader will be the one who loses the forthcoming elections with the least margin. This self destructive tactic will pull down all of them", he added.Stating that photo opportunities would not help Capt Singh any longer, the SAD President said a groundswell of public sentiment was already emerging in favour of BJP candidate Arun Jaitely. "We are also getting tremendous response in Majitha and Ajnala with Mr Jaitely likely to take a lead of 35,000 votes from Majitha alone", he said adding the next ten to fifteen days would witness a complete wave in favour of the SAD-BJP combine in Amritsar. "Amarinder might as well click his farewell pictures also right now ", he added.