15th Chief Minister of Punjab, India
Amarinder Singh
Singh in 2017
In office 16 March 2017 – 19 September 2021Governor
V. P. Singh Badnore
Banwarilal Purohit Preceded by
Parkash Singh Badal Succeeded by
Charanjit Singh Channi In office 26 February 2002 – 1 March 2007Governor
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
Additional ministries
In office 16 March 2017 – 18 September 2021Ministries and Departments
Minister of Administrative Reforms, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Horticulture, Conservation of Land and Water, Excise & Taxation, General Administration, Home Affairs & Justice, Legal & Legislative Affairs, Vigilance, Personnel, Civil Aviation, Defence Services Welfare, Hospitality, Investment Promotion, Information & Public Relations, Environment, Wildlife, NRI Affairs Government of Punjab, India Preceded by
Parkash Singh Badal Succeeded by
Charanjit Singh Channi
In office 11 March 2017 – 15 March 2022Preceded by
Preneet Kaur Succeeded by
Ajit Pal Singh Kohli Constituency
Patiala In office 2002–2014Preceded by Surjit Singh Kohli Succeeded by
Preneet Kaur Constituency Patiala Town In office 1992–1997Preceded by Hardial Singh Rajla Succeeded by Jagtar Singh Rajla Constituency
Samana In office 1985–1992Preceded by Avtar Singh Succeeded by
Harminder Singh Constituency
Talwandi Sabo In office 26 May 2014 – 23 November 2016Preceded by
Navjot Singh Sidhu Succeeded by
Gurjeet Singh Aujla Constituency
Amritsar In office 1980–1984Preceded by
Gurcharan Singh Tohra Succeeded by
Charanjit Singh Walia Constituency
Patiala
Born (1942-03-11 ) 11 March 1942 (age 82)
Patiala ,
Patiala State ,
Punjab States Agency ,
British India (present-day
Punjab ,
India ) Political party
Bharatiya Janata Party Other political affiliations Spouse
Children 2, including
Raninder Singh Parents Website
Official website Allegiance IndiaBranch/service
Indian Army Years of service 1963–1966 Rank
Captain Unit
Sikh Regiment Battles/wars
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 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 , served in the
Indian Army 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 three times.
[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]
Early life and education
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]
Army career
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".
Political career
Early career
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.
Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee and state politics
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 , a member of the
Khanna family and the son of Singh's paternal aunt Naginder Kumari Khanna.
[9]
[16] Arvind Khanna used his wealth to fund Singh 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]
Chief Minister of Punjab, First term
He became
Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002 and continued until 2007.
[19]
Punjab Opposition
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]
Member of Parliament
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]
Chief Minister of Punjab, second term
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
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]
2022 Punjab Assembly election
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]
Bharatiya Janata Party
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]
Books
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]
Awards and recognition
The author Khushwant Singh released a biographic book titled, Captain Amarinder Singh: The People's Maharaja in 2017.
[37]
Personal life
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]
References
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
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^
a
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^
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^
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"Pushed to the margins, Simranjit Mann carrying legacy of a lost cause" . Hindustan Times .
Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020 .
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