Amarinder Singh

Amarinder Singh (2016)

Amarinder Singh ( Punjabi ਅਮਰਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ , Hindi अमरिन्दर सिंह ); * March 11, 1942 in Patiala (then British India , now Punjab , India) is an Indian politician of the Congress Party and since March 16, 2017 Chief Minister of the Indian state of Punjab.

biography

Amarinder Singh comes from the former ruling Indian Sikh princely family of the Maharajas of Patiala . His father Yadavindra Singh was the last ruling Maharaja of Patiala from 1938 until the annexation of his principality to India in 1948 and until 1956, when the former ruling princes lost their formal functions with the States Reorganization Act , the Rajpramukh of the state of Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU). Amarinder Singh has been head of the princely family since his father's death in 1974.

Amarinder Singh attended the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun , where he also met Rajiv Gandhi , with whom he remained friends. Singh initially pursued an army career and rose to the rank of captain , but decided in 1968 - probably under the influence of his politically active parents - to go into politics. After several unsuccessful attempts, he won the Lok Sabha constituency 8-Patiala in the 1980 parliamentary election for the Congress Party . After the Indian army, at the behest of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar , where Sikh extremists had holed up, and damaged it considerably, Amarindar Singh left the Congress Party in protest. He joined the Sikh party Shiromani Akali Dal and was elected to the Punjab Parliament in 1985 in the constituency 109-Talwandi Sabo . In the newly formed government he was given the post of Minister for Agriculture, but resigned the following year after the Akali Dal split. Amarinder Singh later left the Shiromai Akali Dal and tried unsuccessfully to found his own political party. Twice ( 1992 and 1998 ) he ran unsuccessfully in the constituency 8-Patiala for the Lok Sabha. After Sonia Gandhi took over the leadership of the Congress Party in 1998 and made an appeal to all dissidents to return to Congress, Amarinder Singh followed this call and rejoined the Congress Party in 1998.

In the parliamentary elections in Punjab in 2002 and 2007 he was elected to the state parliament in constituency 76-Patiala Town and in the elections in 2012 and 2017 in constituency 115-Patiala . In the all-India parliamentary election in 2014 , he was also successful in the constituency of 2-Amritsar . From 2002 to 2007 he was Chief Minister of Punjab at the head of a Congress party-led government. The parliamentary election in Punjab on February 4, 2017 was clearly won by the Congress party. On March 16, 2017, he was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of the Punjab.

Amarinder Singh is married to Preneet Kaur , who herself has an active political career in the Congress Party. His wife was a Lok Sabha MP in the Patiala constituency from 1999 to 2014 and Minister of State in the second cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh . The couple have a son and a daughter. Amarinder Singh's leisure activities are various sports ( polo , riding, cricket , squash and badminton ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sukhdeep Kaur: Patiala House: Captain Amarinder's clan, hope and heir. The Indian Express, December 14, 2016, accessed March 12, 2017 . 
2. ^ Election Results - Full Statistical Reports. Indian Election Commission, accessed on March 12, 2017 (English, election results of all Indian elections to the Lok Sabha and the parliaments of the states since independence). 
3. ↑ Amarinder Singh's biography 'The People's Maharaja' released. February 21, 2017, accessed March 12, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Punjab Election Results 2017. livemint.com, accessed on 12 March 2017 (English). 
5. ↑ Capt Amarinder takes oath as Punjab CM; Modes tweets best wishes. Hndustan Times, March 16, 2017, accessed March 16, 2017 . 
6. ^ All Members of Lok Sabha (Since 1952) - Members Biographical Sketches. Parliament of India, Lok Sabha, House of the People, accessed March 12, 2017 .