Bowled over by grace and dignity shown by Sidhu, says Jaitley

Jaitley sang paeans in honour of Amritsar, which he said, he loves for various reasons and is now looking forward to staying there for a longer stay.

He also thanked his party for selecting him for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat saying, “Since 1980 I was involved in the management of the political campaigns of the BJP...  “Since I used to be in the business of organising polls I never got a chance to contest one.”

Jaitley said though he has been a member of the BJP since its inception in 1980, he has never got a chance to contest elections and was inducted in the NDA government even when he was not an MP and later represented Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha.

Lauding Sidhu's role, Jaitley said,”Navjot and my relationship is much more than political.

I could not have imagined replacing him. For the last few days he started insisting that I should go to Amritsar to contest elections.”