Arun Jaitley accorded rousing welcome in Amritsar

, Mar 18: Senior

leader

was on Tuesday accorded warm welcome upon reaching Amritsar, the constituency from where he will contest his first-ever parliamentary elections.

The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal leadership and the local BJP leaders were present when Jaitley arrived here this afternoon. However, three-time sitting MP from here, Navjot Singh Sidhu, gave it a miss.

On Saturday, when BJP had announced Jaitley's candidature from Amritsar, Sidhu had said that Jaitley was his "guru". Sidhu has been vocal against the Akali leadership in the past and had even accused them of scuttling his pet projects in the constituency.

He had said on Saturday that he would accept whatever the party decided, though he had made it clear that he would not contest the election from anywhere else.

Jailtey was received at Amritsar Rajasansi Airport by Punjab Cabinet Minister Bikram Majithia along with his party workers, MLAs and BJP local leadership including Punjab cabinet Minister Anil Joshi.

On the way from airport to Golden Temple, where the BJP leader was to pay obeisance, Jaitley was accorded warm welcome, as the party activists showered rose petals on his long cavalcade which was moving under the tight security.

There was heavy rush of SAD and BJP workers and other supporters on the roads right from the Airport to Golden Temple. The VVIP cavalcade included buses, cars, jeeps and numerous security vehicles of police.

Sidhu's wife and MLA from Amritsar-East, Navjot Kaur and State BJP President Kamal Sharma were also present when Jaitley arrived here. Jaitley rode in an open truck as cavalcade of vehicles accompanied him.

PTI