Amarinder Singh

Capt. Amarinder Singh (born March 11, 1942, Patiala, India) is an MLA in the Vidhan Sabha and former Chief Minister of Punjab. He is the son of Late Maharaja Yadavindra Singh of Patiala and was the head of the former royal house of Patiala. He was educated at Doon school in Shimla. 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.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha on an INC ticket in 1980. In 1984, he resigned from Parliament and from Congress (I) 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. Later he broke away from the Akali Dal and formed a splinter group which later merged with the Congress. His wife Parneet Kaur was elected to Parliament in 1999 and again in 2004. His sister is married to congress politician Natwar Singh who was Minister of External Affairs till 2005 in the Manmohan Singh government.