The media savvy Sidhu, who has been avoiding journalists in the last few months, could not be reached Sunday.
For Sidhu, who was elected from Amritsar thrice - two general elections in 2004 and 2009 and one by-election in 2007 - the writing was quite clearly on the wall.
The BJP's local leadership, including Local Bodies Minister Anil Joshi and senior leaders demanded last week that Jaitley be given the Amritsar ticket.
The move was targeted at easing out Sidhu from the scene. Sidhu gave a small window to the party leader by announcing that while he would only contest from Amritsar, he would not mind if Jaitley was given the ticket from here.
His opponents had put up ‘missing' posters with a reward in Amritsar constituency after Sidhu did the vanishing act from his seat for a few months last year.
