Captain Amarinder Singh

Feb 10, 2017, 12:32 IST

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Former chief minister of Punjab, from 2002 to 2007, and the head of the royal family of the erstwhile State of Patiala, Captain Amarinder Singh is the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. He joined the Army in June 1963 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He resigned from the organisation in 1965 to re-join it as hostilities between India and Pakistan led to the 1965 war, where he served as a Captain to finally leave it in 1968.
He joined the Indian National Congress under Rajiv Gandhi and had his political debut in 1980, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha. He resigned from the party and the Parliament in 1984 in protest against the Army's Operation Blue Star. Following which, he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal, got elected to the state Legislative Assembly from Talwandi Sabo constituency and became the minister for Agriculture, Forest, Development and Panchayats.
In 1992, he broke away from the SAD and formed a splinter group by the name of Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic). His party faced a crushing defeat in the Assembly elections of 1997, where he himself was defeated from his constituency after getting just 856 votes. Following this development, he merged his party with the Congress in 1998, and served as the president of PPCC from 1999 to 2010, then from 2010 to 2013 and again in November 2015. He has been a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for five terms representing Patiala (Urban) thrice, Samana and Talwandi Sabo once each.
For the 2017 Assembly elections, he has filed nominations from two constituencies - Patiala, his home turf, and Lambi, Parkash Singh Badal's turf. It is the first time in the history of Punjab that a former CM will take on an incumbent one, that too in the latter's bastion. Captain was named as the chief ministerial face of the Congress party for Punjab, at a rally addressed by Rahul Gandhi, days before the campaigning was to end.
At 74, he has announced the 2017 Punjab elections as his last hurrah. It comes after 46 years in politics, 11 parliamentary and state elections. Bitter at not being able to steer his party to victory in last two elections, Amarinder has this time tried to lead by example and has imposed a 'one family, one ticket' rule.
For this last time, Amarinder has dissociated himself from the royalty tag, completely by design. Congress poll strategist Prashant Kishor has centred the campaign around 'Captain', a catchword that fits into the bid to woo young voters while appealing to the border constituencies as well.

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