Amarinder Singh
| Amarinder Singh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chief Minister of Punjab | |
|
In office 26 February 2002 – 1 February 2007 | |
| Preceded by | Parkash Singh Badal |
| Succeeded by | Parkash Singh Badal |
| President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee | |
|
In office 1998–2002 | |
| Preceded by | Rajinder Kaur Bhattal |
| Succeeded by | H S Hanspal |
| President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee | |
|
In office 2010–2013 | |
| Preceded by | Mohinder Singh Kaypee |
| Succeeded by | Partap Singh Bajwa |
| President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee | |
|
Assumed office 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Partap Singh Bajwa |
| Member of Parliament | |
|
Assumed office 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Navjot Singh Sidhu |
| Constituency | Amritsar |
| Member of Parliament | |
|
In office 1980-1984 | |
| Preceded by | Gurcharan Singh Tohra |
| Succeeded by | Charanjit Singh Walia |
| Constituency | Patiala |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
11 March 1942 Patiala, Punjab |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse(s) | Preneet Kaur |
| Residence | New Moti Bagh Palace, Patiala |
| Website | Official website |
Captain Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942) is an Indian politician of the Indian National Congress. Head of the royal family of the erstwhile State of Patiala, he was Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007.[1] Presently, he is the sitting President of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC),[2][3][4] and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the 16th Lok Sabha, having been chosen for the position after his election as a Member of Parliament from Amritsar, where he defeated the prominent BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
Personal life
Singh is the son of Maharaja Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur of Patiala belonging to the Phulkian Jat dynasty of Sidhu Brar descent.[5] He attended the Welham Boys' School and Lawrence School Sanawar[6] before going to The Doon School,[7] Dehradun. He has one son, Raninder Singh, and one daughter, Jai Inder Kaur, who is married to a Delhi-based businessman, Gurpal Singh.[8] His wife, Preneet Kaur, served as an MP and was Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2014.
His elder sister Heminder Kaur is married to former foreign minister K. Natwar Singh. He is also related to Shiromani Akali Dal (A) supremo and former IPS Officer Simranjit Singh Mann. Mann's wife and Amarinder Singh's wife, Preneet Kaur, are sisters.
Army career
He joined the Indian Army in June 1963 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy before resigning in early 1965. He rejoined the Army again as hostilities broke out with Pakistan and served as Captain in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.[9][10]
Political career
He was inducted into the Congress by Rajiv Gandhi, who was his friend from school and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. In 1984, he resigned from Parliament and from Congress as a protest against the Army action during Operation Blue Star. Subsequently he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal was elected to the state legislature from Talwandi Sabo and became a minister in the state government for Agriculture, Forest, Development and Panchayats.
In 1992 he broke away from the Akali Dal and formed a splinter group named Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic) which later merged with the Congress in 1998 (after his party's crushing defeat in Vidhan Sabha election in which he himself was defeated from his own constituency where he got only 856 votes) after Sonia Gandhi took over the reign of the party. He was defeated by Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra from Patiala Constituency in 1998 by a whooping margin of 33251 votes. He served as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on two occasions from 1999 to 2002 and 2010 to 2013, he also became Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002 and continued until 2007.
In September 2008, a special committee of Punjab Vidhan Sabha expelled him on the count of regularities in the transfer of land related to the Amritsar Improvement Trust by the Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party led government.[11] In 2010, the Supreme Court of India held his expulsion unconstitutional on the grounds it was excessive and unconstitutional.[11]
He was appointed as chairman of Punjab Congress Campaign Committee in 2008. Captain Amarinder Singh is also a Permanent Invitee to the Congress Working Committee since 2013. He defeated senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley by a margin of more than 1,02,000 votes in 2014 general elections. He has been a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for five terms representing Patiala (Urban) thrice, Samana and Talwandi Sabo once each.
On 27 November 2015, Amarinder Singh was appointed President of Punjab Congress in the run up to Punjab elections slated for 2017.[12]
President of All India Jat Maha Sabha
Capt Amarinder Singh is president of the All India Jat Maha Sabha. He had been associated with the Jat Maha Sabha for last 30 years as its patron since 1980 when Capt Bhagwan Singh was its president. He demanded reservation for Jats under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.[13]
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.[14][15]
References
- ↑ "City Centre Scam: Next hearing on February 27". The Times Of India. 6 February 2010.
- ↑ http://zeenews.india.com/news/punjab/captain-amarinder-singh-appointed-new-punjab-congress-chief_1827238.html
- ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Captain-Amarinder-Singh-to-steer-Congress-in-Punjab-polls/articleshow/49955148.cms
- ↑ http://www.asianage.com/india/amarinder-singh-appointed-new-punjab-pcc-chief-012
- ↑ http://www.royalark.net/India/jind.htm
- ↑ Sharma, Pratul (19 January 2012). "Captain goes all guns blazing: Congress's Amarinder Singh insists he hasn't mellowed and is sure of victory in Punjab as he takes on the Badals". Daily Mail. London.
- ↑ "'Seven Doscos in 15th Lok Sabha'". The Indian Express. 31 May 2009.
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2397441/Himachal-Pradesh-CMs-daughter-wed-Amarinders-grandson.html
- ↑ 1965 War, the Inside Story
- ↑ http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030910/main4.htm
- 1 2 Dhananjay Mahapatra, Dhananjay (27 April 2010). "'Amarinder's removal undemocratic'". Times of India.
- ↑ "'Amarinder appointed Captain of Punjab Congress'". Daily Post India. 27 November 2015.
- ↑ http://punjabnewsline.com/news/Capt-Amarinder-unanimously-appointed-president-of-All-India-Jat-Maha-Sabha.html
- ↑ http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/the-war-no-one-lost/
- ↑ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-09-21/news/66761141_1_great-war-new-book-1965-indo-pak-war
| Preceded by Parkash Singh Badal |
Chief Minister of Punjab 2002–2007 |
Succeeded by Parkash Singh Badal |
