26 Oct 2010-CHANDIGARH: The AICC on Tuesday announced the name of former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh as President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee(PPCC). He succeeds Mohinder Singh Kay Pee.
Born on March 11, 1942, Amarinder Singh (68) served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and presently represents the Patiala assembly segment of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.His wife Maharani Preneet Kaur was elected to Parliament consecutively for three terms from 1999 to 2009 and is now Union Minister Of State of External Affairs of India.
Captain Singh was President of PPCC from 1998 to 2002 and he drove the Congress to power in 2002 assembly elections.
Capt Amarinder Singh was the only choice as far his capability to lead the party for 2012 assembly elections. The party high command has reached at concenus that non other than Capt Amarinder Singh give fight to ruling Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD).
In September 2008 he was expelled from the Punjab Legislative Assembly for "irregularities in transfer of land related to the Amritsar Improvement Trust by the Akali Dal-BJP led government. In 2010, the Supreme Court of India held his expulsion unconstitutional on the grounds it was excessive and unconstitutional.
Captain Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha on an Indian National Congress ticket in 1980. In 1984, he resigned from Parliament and from Congress as a protest against the Army entry in Darbar Sahib's complex in Operation Bluestar. He became convenor of the Sikh Forum and joined the Shiromani Akali Dal. He was elected to the state legislature and became a minister in the state government for Agriculture, Forest, Development and Panchayats.
Captain Singh is the son of late Maharaja of Patiala Maharaja Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur, Rajmata of Patiala. He is the head of the royal house of Patiala belonging to the Phulkian dynasty.
He was commissioned in the Indian Army in June 1963 and resigned in early 1965. He rejoined the Army immediately because hostilities broke out with Pakistan and took part in the actual operations in war against Pakistan and again resigned after the war was over in early 1966.
A soldier-turned-politician, Singh was a personal friend of, and was inducted into the Congress, by Rajiv Gandhi. Singh quit the Congress in protest against Operation Bluestar - in which security forces attacked the Sikhs holiest shrine the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. In the immediate aftermath of Operation Bluestar, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Singh went on to join the Akali Dal. Patiala royal scion Amarinder Singh, also a Doon School alumni, came into the Congress at about the time Sonia Gandhi took over the reigns of the party. Singh is also a former Punjab minister.
Captain Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha on an Indian National Congress ticket in 1980. In 1984, he resigned from Parliament and from Congress as a protest against the Army entry in Darbar Sahib's complex in Operation Bluestar. He became convenor of the Sikh Forum and joined the Shiromani Akali Dal. He was elected to the state legislature and became a minister in the state government for Agriculture, Forest, Development and Panchayats
Singh broke away from the Akali Dal and formed a splinter group named Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic) which later merged with the Congress. He served as the President of state Congress unit fro 1999 to 2002 and later as Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and the Chairman of Punjab Pradesh Congress Campaign Committee for Lok Sabha election.