Elections 2014: All eyes on high stake Amritsar seat

AMRITSAR: While the nation is awaiting the Lok Sabha poll results, all eyes are on high stake Amristar parliamentary constituency, where BJP fielded its senior leader, key strategists and leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley by replacing its three-time MP Navjot Singh Sidhu against Congress' former chief minister Amarinder Singh.

Akalis, who were having strained ties with Sidhu over several issues, had suggested that BJP replace him with Jaitley and also assured of his victory even before Congress could announce its candidate. When Congress declared Amarinder's name from Amritsar seat, the contest in the holy city turned into a tough battle for BJP from an otherwise easy contest.

Caught in a big battle, Akalis picked up young and influential revenue minister Bikramjit Singh Majithia to manage Jaitley's poll campaign in Amritsar and BJP also put its might behind Jaitley by roping in all of its star campaigners -Bollywood actors to PM candidate Narendra Modi. A large number of Jaitley's advocate colleagues and businessmen friends also camped in Amritsar for micro management of his election campaign. Jaitely, who had earlier maintained that he would also monitor BJP's national campaign, hardly found time to leave the city as campaigning progressed.

While Jaitley wrote blogs and commented on national issues even in his daily media interactions, Amarinder picked up state and constituency-level issues which distracted Jaitley who was contesting his maiden elections.

With high political stakes, Amritsar became the focus of national media and hoards of mediapersons landed in the city to cover the big fight.

During the campaign, national media also focused on Sidhu who chose to stay away from Amritsar during Jaitley's campaigning but arrived a day after the polling. However, his wife Navjot Kaur, an MLA from Amritsar East constituency, campaigned for Jaitley.

Amarinder refused to bring Congress' star campaigners in Amritsar as his poll managers maintained that he himself was enough to campaign for himself.