Will Sidhu laugh his way to victory?

Life is one big laugh for cricketer- turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu. When not attending Parliament, he's judging who is television's most funny guy.    

People of Amritsar will on May 13 decide if they can live with their 'funny' MP or should they have the last laugh.Sidhu is banking on his huge popularity and also the development work undertaken by him as an MP to score his third straight win.

He's a household name due to his stint as a judge on the comedy show - Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He claims credit for work on the Jalandhar-Amritsar four- lane project, besides contributing Rs one crore to launch the Amritsar "go green go clean drive" initiative. 

Moreover, Sidhu says, he has been an active representative of the people and had raised numerous questions in Parliament.     Rubbishing his claims, Soni calls Sidhu a "liar" for laying false claims to projects sanctioned by the UPA Government at the centre. He also alleges that Sidhu has remained mostly in Mumbai during his tenure.    

Soni is seeking votes in the name of development work undertaken by the UPA government. Also in the fray are the BSP candidate LT Gen (retd) B K N Chhibber, a former Governor of Punjab and Rashtriya Raksha Dal candidate Maj (retd) G S Gill.    

The constituency would go to polls on May 13, where more than 12 lakh voters across nine assembly segments will decide the fate of the contesting candidates. Sidhu has won the seat twice and would be looking for a hat-trick. In 2004, he trounced Congress heavyweight and six- time MP R L Bhatia by a margin of 1.09 lakh votes.    

In February 2007 by-election, he defeated Surinder Singla of the Congress by over 77,000 votes that was held after Sidhu tendered his resignation on moral grounds, following charges being framed against him in a road-rage case in Patiala, which is still pending in the court.    

On the other hand, Soni, who started his political career as a Congress councillor and became the city Mayor in 1991, is the party MLA from Amritsar West constituency.    

Despite tall development claims by both the candidates, the constituency  continues to have the same issues as any other underdeveloped city - industry gasping for survival, clogged roads, poor traffic management and drug addiction.    

Post-delimitation, Amritsar now has Attari and Rajasansi as new assembly segments, having lost Qadian and Batala. Of the nine Assembly seats (five urban and four rural), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine currently represents seven.