Diplomat-turned-politician Hardeep Puri, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to bring back the glory of the saffron party in the capital city of Punjab
New Delhi: Contesting his first election from the holy town of Amritsar, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri is looking for an opportunity to avenge the party’s defeat during 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
This Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing a rare contest wherein two Sikh faces are pitted against each other in a direct fight. The Congress has fielded its sitting MP Gurjit Singh Aujla from the seat which has nearly 65% Sikh voters. Also, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded its Majha zone in-charge Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, a Sikh, from the seat.
Diplomat-turned-politician Hardeep Puri, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to bring back the glory of the saffron party in the capital city of Punjab. In the last general elections, it was the crushing defeat of Arun Jaitley, one of the party stalwarts, who despite a strong Modi wave lost to Congress candidate and ex-chief minister of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh by a margin of 1 lakh votes which had almost left the party in a lurch.
Again in the 2017 bypolls, Congress’ Gurjit Singh Aujla defeated BJP nominee Rajinder Mohan Singh Chinna, also a Sikh face by a margin of 1,99,189 votes.
BJP considered his clean image in politics and his decorated service record and fielded him from Amritsar seat which the party lost in last Lok Sabha elections in 2014. Wresting Amritsar from the Congress may be an uphill task for Puri, but if he manages to do so, it will place him directly in the line of notable leaders in the BJP.
Voters of Amritsar Lok Sabha Constituency cast their vote on the last phase of general election 2019 which was held on May 19.
Punjab saw a polling percentage of 59 per cent in 13 seats. Maximum polling percentage was witnessed at 64.18 in Patiala and the lowest was in Amritsar at 52.47.
At the time of the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Amritsar had 1,477,262 registered electors -- 779,164 of them male and 698,098 female. The constituency had seen a 68.18% voter turnout in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. In Amritsar the male voter turnout was 69.00% and 67.26% female voters turned out for voting.
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