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Punjab elections: Majithia to face Sidhu in Amritsar contest
The Shiromani Akal Dal leader is also contesting the polls from his hometurf Majithia, which he has represented for the past three terms.
The Amritsar east assembly segment is set to see one of the most high-profile (and high-stakes) contest of the Punjab assembly polls with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) fielding its senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia against Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Majithia who is called as ‘Majhe Da Jarnail’ (chieftain of Majha; one of three regions of Punjab) by the Akalis, faces arrest in drug case after his anticipatory bail plea was dismissed by Punjab and Haryana High court on Monday. He was able to get a three-day extension, allowing him time to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Though Majithia is contesting the polls from his hometurf Majithia, which he has represented for the past three terms, party president Sukhbir Singh Badal also announced his name for Amritsar east which is the bastion of Sidhu.
“With the party fielding Bikram , it will be the last election to be contested by Sidhu and end of his political career”, said the SAD president. Majithia is the younger brother of MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is married to Sukhbir Badal.
Once friends, Sidhu and Majithia fell out when the SAD-BJP combine was ruling the state. The two have had heated exchanges in the Punjab assembly. And Sidhu has been training guns against Majithia on drug issue.
Badal also announced that his father and party patriarch Parkash Singh Badal , 94, will fight the election. “He fought duding his entire life for Punjab. He has told me that he would not retire in his life. He will be the SAD’a candidate from the Lambi constituency.”
