Former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, whose name was being mentioned as a possible Congress candidate against senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, had expressed his reluctance to contest.
The party Friday named him party candidate from Amritsar in a signal that the leadership would not succumb to public statements about reluctance to contest.
In states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, some leaders have already made it clear that they are not keen to contest.
”The high command's rationale is that since you (West Bengal unit) did not want to ally with Trinamool Congress, you should not now shy away from contesting polls,” said a senior state leader who did not want to be named. The Congress recently decided not to ally with the ruling Trinamool, its former partner in UPA 2.
Senior state leaders like Pradip Bhattacharya and Manas Bhuiyan have spoken to the press about their unwillingness to contest polls owing to old age and organisational responsibilities.
