A day before he filed his nomination papers, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State with independent charge of Housing and Urban Affairs, told a small gathering in Amritsar that he had “fought for the pride of the turban during a search by the security officials at Houston Airport in the US in 2010” when he was the Indian ambassador in that country. He also recalled his interaction with members of the Sikh diaspora and their reverence for the Golden Temple as well as Amritsar.
Puri, who is the BJP's candidate from Amritsar parliamentary constituency that goes to polls on May 19, will be facing two other turbaned men in the contest: by itself rare. Election trivia here includes the fact that it happened only in 1967 and then in a 2017 by-election for the constituency.
The recent electoral history of Amritsar, the Holy City to Sikhs as well as many Hindus who live close to the Harmandir Sahib, is interesting. The Congress has won the constituency 12 out of 19 times in elections and by-elections, and the BJP five times( the Janata Party won once, and an independent candidate once).
At the height of the Modi wave in the summer of 2014, Capt. Amarinder Singh trounced BJP's Arun Jaitely by 1,02,770 votes. It was Jaitely's maiden attempt at popular elections. Amarender Singh resigned less than two years later, protesting against an apex court verdict in the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal case, and when by-elections were held in 2017, Congress candidate Gurjit Singh Aujla won by 1,99,189 votes, and the party also won in eight of the nine assembly segments. Aujla is the Congress candidate from here this time, too.
It is not as if the BJP has not held Amritsar in recent years. Cricket star-turned comedian-turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu launched his political career winning his way to Lok Sabha from Amritsar, as a BJP candidate, in 2004. He resigned a couple of years later facing an adverse court verdict. When acquitted, he contested the by-election, on the BJP ticket, and won in 2006. He won again in 2009. In 2014,the party gave Jaitely the ticket, and after a gap, Sidhu was nominated to the Rajya Sabha—which he quit, and joined the Congress ahead of the Punjab assembly elections.
Puri's candidature was announced on April 21, while Aujla has been campaigning for quite some time, as he tried to get the Congress ticket. Sources say the delay on the part of the BJP was because it was searching for a “winnable” candidate from among the stars of the Hindi film industry and the world of cricket! The AAP candidate Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal is a former Congressman.
Puri has serious talking points: he has adopted Mudhal village in the Amritsar district, and personally ensured development works, as minister for housing and urban affairs; he has released generous funds – Rs 15000 crores – for Amritsar under the Smart City project and substantial funds into beautifying the city under the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana, HRIDAY. Effectively, he is staking the claim for all the beautification around the city, particularly around the Golden Temple which now has a fabulous museum, a heritage walk etc.
It is another matter that the state government also claims to have funded and executed these projects. Puri has one more point to counter the “outsider” and “paratrooper” labels being stuck all around. He was born in Amritsar!
Sidhu swore he would contest from Amritsar or not contest at all. He now represents Amritsar (East) in the assembly, and is Punjab's minister for local government, tourism and culture. That the Congress party's star campaigner will not focus majorly on Amritsar is an oxymoron.
Chief Minister Amarender Singh has set his party as Mission 13—the state has 13 parliamentary constituencies. And of course, Aujla and the Congress government in Punjab, have work to show.
Amritsar registers a temperature that is generally among the highest in the state. Clearly, this summer it is going to be hot regardless of what the weathermen say.