AMRITSAR:  While the saffron Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP)  is yet to open its cards to field its candidate for the high profile Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency, the race is heating up amongst the ticket claimants. There are more than four candidates lining up as probable amidst the people in general seeming upset with ‘outsiders’ trying to paratroops into the fray.
The party is weighing various options and thus trying hard to find a suitable candidate at the seat. Many outsiders including the heavy weights of the likes of Arun Jaitley and Hardeep Puri have lost the elections in the past and voters seems in no mood to support the `outsider’.
The party is already also facing voters’ ire in the neighboring Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency incumbent MP Bollywood star Sunny Deol hardly visited the constituency in the last five years of his term in the parliament. The local leadership and party cadre is resentful that these celebrities and `outsiders’ hardly nurture their constituencies and appear only during the election time.
“What answer we have for the voters. These outsiders appear during elections and vanish forever. People want local faces who understand their issues and available to redress their grievances”, said a local BJP leader, adding that people raise objections regarding the credibility of these ‘outsiders’.
BJP’s party and cadre have collectively supported party’s old horse Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, former vice president of Punjab BJP who is emerging as the front runner in the race for the ticket. He is Jat Sikh, the dominant voter segment in the constituency and had been a loyal party soldier during the tough times. He is also a known educationist and well known face locally.
Chhina who is associated with all the local level public bodies including educational institutions, Art Gallery, Local clubs and associations, have earlier contested the election and was a covering candidate for the party for Jaitley. Apart from him, Former Rajya Sabha MP Shawet Malik and BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh and Congress turn coat Harjinder Singh Thekedar are also in the race for the party ticket.
Former US Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu is camping in Amritsar though he has not joined the BJP, he is boasting his closeness to many top leaders of the party. But being an outsider, he might face the voters’ ire in the current scenario. As the party has already been defeated in the last parliamentary polls, it is considering all possibilities and yet to open its cards.
The perception is that the party must bank upon the local face as had been the practice with the Congress or other opposition parties who have gained electorally for fielding local candidates unlike BJP in past. People want a candidate who is accessible and approachable.

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