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Captain (Retd.) Amarinder Singh | |||||||||||||
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15th Chief Minister of Punjab | |||||||||||||
In office 16 March 2017 –19 September 2021 | |||||||||||||
Governor | V. P. Singh Badnore Banwarilal Purohit | ||||||||||||
Preceded by | Parkash Singh Badal | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Charanjit Singh Channi | ||||||||||||
In office 26 February 2002 –1 March 2007 | |||||||||||||
Governor | J. F. R. Jacob O. P. Verma Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai (additional charge) Sunith Francis Rodrigues | ||||||||||||
Deputy | Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (from 6 January 2004) | ||||||||||||
Preceded by | Parkash Singh Badal | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Parkash Singh Badal | ||||||||||||
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Member of the Legislative Assembly,Punjab | |||||||||||||
In office 11 March 2017 –15 March 2022 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Preneet Kaur | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Ajit Pal Singh Kohli | ||||||||||||
Constituency | Patiala | ||||||||||||
In office 2002–2014 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Surjit Singh Kohli | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Preneet Kaur | ||||||||||||
Constituency | Patiala Town | ||||||||||||
In office 1992–1997 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Hardial Singh Rajla | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Jagtar Singh Rajla | ||||||||||||
Constituency | Samana | ||||||||||||
In office 1985–1992 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Avtar Singh | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Harminder Singh | ||||||||||||
Constituency | Talwandi Sabo | ||||||||||||
Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha | |||||||||||||
In office 26 May 2014 –23 November 2016 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Navjot Singh Sidhu | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Gurjeet Singh Aujla | ||||||||||||
Constituency | Amritsar | ||||||||||||
In office 1980–1984 | |||||||||||||
Preceded by | Gurcharan Singh Tohra | ||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Charanjit Singh Walia | ||||||||||||
Constituency | Patiala | ||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||
Born | Patiala,Patiala State,Punjab States Agency,British India (present-day Punjab,India) | 11 March 1942||||||||||||
Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party | ||||||||||||
Other political affiliations | |||||||||||||
Spouse | |||||||||||||
Children | 2, including Raninder Singh | ||||||||||||
Parents | |||||||||||||
Website | Official website | ||||||||||||
Military service | |||||||||||||
Allegiance | India | ||||||||||||
Branch/service | Indian Army | ||||||||||||
Years of service | 1963–1966 | ||||||||||||
Rank | Captain | ||||||||||||
Unit | Sikh Regiment | ||||||||||||
Battles/wars | Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 | ||||||||||||
Pretender information | |||||||||||||
Title(s) | Maharaja of Patiala | ||||||||||||
Throne(s) claimed | Patiala | ||||||||||||
Pretend from | 17 June 1974–present | ||||||||||||
Monarchy abolished | Sovereign monarchy 1947 (Instrument of Accession) Titular monarchy 1971 (26th Amendment of the Indian Constitution) | ||||||||||||
Predecessor | Yadavindra Singh | ||||||||||||
Signature | |||||||||||||
Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942), [1] is an Indian politician, military historian, former royal and Indian Army veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. [2] His father was the last Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala. [3] Before starting his political career, Singh was an officer in the Indian Army, where he served from 1963 to 1966. [4]
In his long political career, Singh has served in numerous positions including as a Member of the Legislative Assembly in Punjab and as a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. [5] He also served as the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee thrice. [6] Singh served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and 2017 to 2021. [3] As of November 2022, Singh also serves as the chairman of the Punjab Urdu Academy. [7] On 19 September 2022 he merged his party Punjab Lok Congress, which he formed after leaving the Indian National Congress, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined BJP on the same day. [8]
Singh was born on 11 March 1942 in Patiala, Patiala State, Punjab Province, British India. He was born into a royal Punjabi Jat Sikh family of the Sidhu clan to parents Maharaja Sir Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur of Patiala. Singh's family belongs to the Phulkian dynasty. [9] He attended the Loreto Convent in Shimla, and Lawrence School in Kasauli, Solan District, before going to The Doon School in Dehradun. [9] [10]
Singh served in the Indian Army from June 1963 to December 1966 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. [11] He was commissioned into the Sikh Regiment. [12] He served as the aide-de-camp to the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command, Lieutenant General Harbaksh Singh, from December 1964. [13] He left the army in early 1965 to look after his family but returned to service with the start of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War. [14]
His father and grandfather were also in army and many times he said that "Army will always be my first love".
Singh was inducted into the Indian National Congress (INC) by Rajiv Gandhi, his friend from school and who later became Prime Minister of India, and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. In 1984, he resigned from Parliament and from the INC as a protest against the Army's actions during Operation Blue Star. [3] Subsequently, he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal, was elected to the state legislature from Talwandi Sabo and became a minister in the Punjab state government for Agriculture, Forest, Development and Panchayats.
In 1992, Singh broke away from the Akali Dal and formed a splinter party, Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic). [3] His party later merged with the Congress in 1998, after a crushing defeat in the Vidhan Sabha election in which Singh was defeated from his own constituency, getting only 856 votes, and after Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the party. He was defeated by Prem Singh Chandumajra from the Patiala Constituency in 1998 by a margin of 33,251 votes.
Singh's served as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) on three occasions from 1999 to 2002, 2010 to 2013 and 2015 to 2017. [15] Singh's second term as the PPCC president was also noted for the influence wielded by his first cousin, Arvind Khanna, the son of Singh's paternal aunt Naginder Kumari Khanna. [9] [16] Khanna used his wealth to fund Singh's political activities and took control of his office and the PPCC's political strategy. [9] [17]
Singh has been a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for five terms representing Patiala (Urban) thrice, Samana and Talwandi Sabo once each. [18]
He became Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002 and continued until 2007. [19]
In September 2008, a special committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha, during the tenure of a government led by Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party, expelled him on the count of regularities in the transfer of land related to the Amritsar Improvement Trust. [20] In 2010, the Supreme Court of India held his expulsion unconstitutional on the grounds that it was excessive and unconstitutional. [20]
He defeated senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley by a margin of 102,770 votes in 2014 general elections from Amritsar seat. [21]
On 27 November 2015, Amarinder Singh was appointed President of Punjab Congress in the run up to Punjab elections slated for 2017. [22]
On 11 March 2017 Congress Party won the 2017 Punjab Legislative Assembly election under his leadership. Amarinder Singh was sworn in as the 26th Chief Minister of Punjab on 16 March 2017 at Punjab Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh. The oath of office was administered by the Punjab governor, V.P. Singh Badnore. [2] [23] He was appointed president of the Jat Mahasabha in 2013. [24]
During his tenure as chief minister, he came into conflict with a faction of the Congress headed by Navjot Singh Sidhu, and was criticised for being inaccessible to Congress MLAs, living in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Chandigarh instead of coming to the civil secretariat building. He also received criticism for not resolving the Bargari sacrilege case and for a perception that he had been insufficiently zealous in prosecuting previous CM Parkash Singh Badal for involvement in the case. [25]
On 18 September 2021, he resigned as the Chief Minister of Punjab, as a consequence of conversations with the Congress high command that suggested the Punjab Congress MLAs were lacking confidence in his leadership. [26] Singh publicly blamed Sidhu for the internal tension that led to the resignation, calling him "dangerous", "incompetent", and a "total disaster" and that he would fight any attempt to name Sidhu as the next CM of Punjab. [27] Singh was eventually succeeded by Charanjit Singh Channi as the new chief minister. [28]
Singh left the Congress Party, and on 28 October 2021, announced that he would be floating a new party soon and that he would be allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party. [29]
Punjab Lok Congress (PLC; English: Punjab People's Congress) is an Indian regional political party, in Punjab founded by Singh on 2 November 2021 after he resigned as Chief Minister of Punjab and quit the INC. [30] The party was formed following a split in INC. Singh has announced that his party will contest on all 117 seats in 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election. [31] The party failed to win any seat in the elections. [32]
In 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, Singh lost from the Patiala Assembly constituency to Aam Aadmi Party's Ajit Pal Singh Kohli. [33] Singh's party PLC lost election deposit in all but one of the 28 seats it had contested with garnering 0.54% of the total votes polled. [34]
A few months after his election failure Singh along with his party merged into the Bharatiya Janata Party on 19 September 2022 after meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah a few days before. [32]
He has also written books on war and Sikh history which include A Ridge Too Far, Lest We Forget, The Last Sunset: Rise and Fall of Lahore Durbar and The Sikhs in Britain: 150 years of Photographs. Among his most recent works are Honour and Fidelity: India's Military Contribution to the Great War 1914 to 1918 released in Chandigarh on 6 December 2014, and The Monsoon War: Young Officers Reminisce – 1965 India-Pakistan War- which contains his memoirs of the 1965 Indo-Pak war. [35] [36]
The author Khushwant Singh released a biographic book titled, Captain Amarinder Singh: The People's Maharaja in 2017. [37]
Singh has one son, Raninder Singh, and one daughter, Jai Inder Kaur. [9] His wife, Preneet Kaur, served as an Member of Parliament and was Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2012. [38]
His elder sister Heminder Kaur is married to former Foreign Minister K. Natwar Singh. [39] He is also related to Shiromani Akali Dal (A) leader and former Indian Police Service officer Simranjit Singh Mann. Mann's wife and Amarinder Singh's wife, Preneet Kaur, are sisters. [40]
Panth Rattan Shiri Gurcharan Singh Tohra was a president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), a Sikh body in charge of controlling Gurdwara. He died of a heart attack in New Delhi on 1 April 2004 at the age of 79. He remained the head of the SGPC for a record 27 years, and was one of the most influential and controversial Sikh leaders of the 20th century.
Navjot Singh Sidhu is an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress, television personality and retired international cricketer. He is the former President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Formerly, he was the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs in the state government of State of Punjab. Sidhu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 and contested the general election from Amritsar that year. He won the election and held the seat till 2014 winning also the next election. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Punjab before he resigned from the position the same year and quit the party. In 2017, he joined the Indian National Congress and was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Amritsar East. He lost in 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election from Amritsar East Assembly constituency.
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is a hard-line Sikh nationalist political party led by Simranjit Singh Mann, it is a splinter group of the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, India. They use 'Balti', the Punjabi term for bucket as their official election symbol. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was formed on 1 May 1994. The party has seen a resurgence in support after the deaths of Deep Sidhu and Sidhu Moose Wala who were supporters and seen as sympathetic to the cause of Simranjit Singh Mann. Their 2022 Lok Sabha victory after more than two decades has been viewed as a resurgence in a political vacuum due to collapse of other traditional political parties in Punjab. The last major victory for Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, where the party and their allies won 10 out of 13 seats from Punjab.
Simranjit Singh Mann is a former Indian Police Service officer and a former Member of the Parliament in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament of India, representing the constituency of Sangrur since 2022. He lost elections in 2024 and Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer became new member of parliament. He is the president of the political party Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar). Mann has served three-times as an MP; once from Taran Tarn between 1989 and 1991, and twice from Sangrur between 1999-2004 and since 2022. He is a known Khalistani supporter and his party is known for their pro-Khalistan stances.
Preneet Kaur is an Indian politician who served in the Government of India as a Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2014. She is married to Amarinder Singh, who was the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. She joined the Congress party, to which her husband also belonged once, and contested parliamentary elections repeatedly from the Patiala constituency. In February 2023, she was suspended from the party for supporting BJP leader and her husband Amarinder Singh and campaigning for candidates of the BJP or BJP-allied parties. She won the elections of 1999, 2004 and 2009, but lost her seat in the elections of 2014 and made a comeback by winning again in 2019.
Jagmeet Singh Brar is an Indian politician, lawyer, writer and poet who belonged to the Shiromani Akali Dal. He represents the Lokhit Abhiyan political party.
Politics in reorganised present-day Punjab is dominated by mainly three parties – Indian National Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). Since 1967, Chief Minister of Punjab has been predominantly from Jat Sikh community despite its 21 percent state population. Exceptions are Giani Zail Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab from 17 March 1972 to 30 April 1977 belonging to Ramgarhia community that has population of 6 percent and is a part of significant OBC community having population of 31.3 percent in the state and Charanjit Singh Channi who held the position for 111 days from 20 September 2021 to 16 March 2022 and was from Scheduled Caste(Dalit) who have 32 percent population in the state. Other prominent party is Bahujan Samaj Party especially in Doaba region founded by Kanshi Ram of Rupnagar district. In 1992 BSP won 9 seats Vidhan Sabha elections. Also BSP won 3 lok sabha seats from Punjab in 1996 general elections and only Garhshanker seat in 1997 Vidhan Sabha elections. Communist parties too have some influence in the Malwa area. In the 2014 general elections, the first-time contesting Aam Aadmi Party got 4 out of 13 seats in Punjab by winning 34 of the total 117 assembly segments, coming second in 7, third in 73 and fourth in the rest 3 segments. The support for the Aam Aadmi Party increased later in Punjab. The current Government was elected in the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections and the AAP won 92 out of 117 Assembly seats with Bhagwant Mann as the Chief Minister. The Congress flows down to get only 18 seats.
Prem Singh Chandumajra is General Secretary and spokesman of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and former Member of Parliament from Anandpur Sahib and former constituency MP from Patiala seat. He is also an alumnus of Punjabi University, Patiala. He was a Member of Parliament in 11th, 12th and now of 16th Lok Sabha. He won with a low margin from Himmat Singh Shergill and Ambika Soni, who put up a tough fight.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal is an Indian politician and a former Union Cabinet Minister of Food Processing Industries in the Government of India and Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Bathinda. She is a member of Shiromani Akali Dal Party. Her husband Sukhbir Singh Badal is former deputy chief minister of Punjab and the president of Shiromani Akali Dal. She resigned from the cabinet on 17 September 2020 to protest against few farmer related ordinances and legislation.
Raninder Singh is an Indian politician from Punjab, India, and son of the former Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh. He is the titular heir to the Phulkian royal dynasty of Patiala.
Charanjit Singh Channi is an Indian politician who served as the 16th Chief Minister of Punjab. He is a member of the Indian National Congress. He is serving as a Member of the Lok Sabha from Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency since 4 June 2024. He was also Minister of Technical Education and Training in Second Amarinder Singh ministry and leader of the opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly. He was the first Dalit to become the CM of Punjab.
Vijay Inder Singla is an Indian politician. He is former member of Punjab Legislative Assembly. He is a former minister in the current council of ministers of Punjab government and heads the Public Works Department and Administrative Reforms. He was a Congress [Member of Parliament] from Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab from 2009 to 2014. In 2014, he lost Lok Sabha election from Sangrur to Bhagwant Mann with a margin of 3,51,827 votes. In 2017, he won Sangrur constituency with margin of 30000 votes. In 2022, he lost to Narinder Kaur Bharaj of AAP, with margin of 36,430 votes. His father Sant Ram Singla was also Congress MP, and was Minister in first term of Captain Amarinder Singh Government in Punjab. Recently, he has been given key profile in AICC, as a Secretary, AICC to the AICC Treasurer. Earlier, he has been national spokesperson of Congress.
Amarinder Singh, popularly known as Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, or Raja Warring is an Indian politician. He is a Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha and president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
Parminder Singh Dhindsa is an Indian politician and belongs to the Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) Political Party. He was a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal until late 2019. He is currently MLA from Lehra and was leader of Shiromani Akali Dal Legislature group in Punjab Legislative Assembly until he quit. He was Minister for Finance & Planning (2012–2017) and Minister for Public Works (B&R) (2007–2012) in the previous Punjab Government. He is son of Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa. He was first elected as MLA of Sunam in September 2000 by defeating Parmeshwari Devi of Congress during the by-election. He was re-elected as an MLA for the fifth consecutive term in 2017 with his tenure since 2000 to 2012 from Sunam and from 2017 onwards from Lehra Constituency. He is triumphant in his entire career since 2000.
Sukhbir Singh Badal is an Indian politician and businessman who served twice as the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab and is currently the president of Shiromani Akali Dal, and was a member of Parliament from the Firozpur Lok Sabha constituency. He is the son of Parkash Singh Badal, who has served five times as the Chief Minister of Punjab. He is influential over the Sikh organizations of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. Badal and his family have ownership stakes in an array of businesses- including real estate, transport and other activities.
A Legislative Assembly election was held in the Indian state of Punjab on 4 February 2017 to elect the 117 members of the Fifteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly. The counting of votes was done on 11 March 2017. The ruling pre-election coalition was the alliance comprising the political parties Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party and led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. The voter turnout for the Punjab Assembly election was 77.2% The Indian National Congress led by former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh defeated the ruling alliance and the newcomer Aam Aadmi Party.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in Punjab on 20 February 2022 to elect the 117 members of the 16th Assembly of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
Punjab Lok Congress was an Indian regional political party, with its base in Punjab. It was founded by Amarinder Singh on 2 November 2021, following a split in Indian National Congress in Punjab, after he resigned as Chief Minister of Punjab and quit the Indian National Congress.
Ajit Pal Singh Kohli is an Indian politician and businessman. He is a former Mayor of and the MLA from Patiala Assembly constituency. He is a leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and serves as the party's state spokesman.
Gurmeet Singh Khuddian is an Indian politician and member of Aam Aadmi Party. He is currently serving as a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Lambi. He defeated SAD Veteran and Patron of Shiromani Akali Dal Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi in 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections. He is the son of former Member of Parliament Jagdev Singh Khuddian.