After guiding the Congress to a resounding victory, Amarinder Singh was on March 16, 2017 sworn-in as the Punjab Chief Minister for the second time.
Short profiles of the scion of the Patiala royal family and his Ministerial colleagues.
Captain Amarinder Singh
NEW DELHI: 26th CM of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh. pti graphics(PTI3_16_2017_000212B)
Captain Amarinder Singh, the ‘Maharaja’ of Patiala, is a war veteran who has seen action during the 1965 war with Pakistan. He joined the Army in 1963, only to resign in 1965 after his father Maharaja Yadavindra Singh was appointed Ambassador to Italy. He rejoined the Army in 1965 and resigned as a decorated soldier after hostilities were over with Pakistan.
His political career began with the Congress and was elected MP in January 1980. But he resigned from the Congress and the Lok Sabha in protest against the “Operation Blue Star” in 1984.
After joining the Akali Dal in August 1985, Capt. Singh got elected to the Punjab Assembly in the 1995 elections. He was Agriculture Minister in the then Surjit Singh Barnala government. However, Capt. Singh resigned from the Cabinet in protest against the entry of paramilitary forces into the Golden Temple on May 5, 1986. He then floated the Panthic Akali Dal, which later merged with the Congress in 1997.
Capt. Singh unsuccessfully fought the parliamentary elections on a Congress ticket from Patiala in 1998. He then served as Punjab Congress chief from 1999-2002 before becoming the Chief Minister in 2002. He lost power to the Akali Dal in 2007, and failed to wrest power from them in 2012. He fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar and defeated Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley by a margin of more than 1 lakh votes.
Braham Mohindra
The senior most Minister in Punjab Cabinet after Amarinder Singh, Braham Mohindra is the prominent Hindu face of the Congress in the Sikh-majority State.
Manpreet Badal
The estranged nephew of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet Badal has reclaimed the Finance portfolio, which held in his uncle’s Cabinet in 2007. He resigned from the Parkash Singh Badal Ministry and the Shiromani Akali Dal in 2010 and launched People's Party of Punjab in 2011. A coalition led by his party, the Sanjha Morcha, got 6% of the votes in the 2012 Assembly polls, but failed to win any seat. He merged the party with the Congress in January 2016.
Navjot Singh Sidhu
The former cricketer and a master of one-liners began his political career in the BJP. He won the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2004 and then in 2009. His Lok Sabha innings had a small break in December 2006, when he was convicted for causing the death of a man in a road rage incident. After the Supreme Court stayed the verdict, he won the bypoll for the same seat and won in February 2007. When Amritsar was allotted to Arun Jaitley in 2014, he moved to the Upper House in April 2016. He resigned from the BJP in July that year and launched an outfit called Aawaaz-e-Punjab. In January 2017 he joined the Congress, after widespread speculation that he and his wife Navjot Kaur might join Aam Aadmi Party.
Sadhu Singh Dharamsot
The two-time legislator is reportedly the first MLA from the nomadic Bazigar community of the State.
Tript Rajinder Bajwa
The four-time MLA (twice each from Qadian and Fatehgarh Churian) was a Minister in the Congress government between March 2003 and August 2004. He resigned in 2004 and was later appointed Punjab Pollution Control Board chief.
Rana Gurjeet Singh
Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh has vast interests in the sugar industry and was the richest candidate in the Punjab Assembly polls this year. According to his poll affidavit he is worth around Rs. 170 crore.
Charanjit Singh Channi
Three-time MLA Charanjit Singh Channi was leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the outgoing Punjab Assembly.
Aruna Chaudhary (Minister of State)
Daughter-in-law of veteran politician and four-time MLA Jai Muni Chaudhary, Aruna Chaudhary has won from Dina Nagar thrice between 2002 and 2017. She lost in 2007. She is one of the two women in the Amarinder Singh Ministry.
Razia Sultana (Minister of State)
Minister of State Razia Sultana is only Muslim and one of the two women in the Amarinder Singh Ministry. Her husband Muhammad Mustafa is a DGP with Punjab Police.
