Captain Amarinder Singh was the 26th chief minister of Punjab. Prior to his second stint, he had initially served as the CM from 2002-2007. An elected Member of the Legislative Assembly from Patiala, he was also the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee – the state division of the Indian National Congress.

He won a seat in the Lok Sabha in 1980 but before that he was with the Indian Army from 1963 to 1966. After graduating from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy in 1963, he resigned early in 1965. However, he rejoined the Indian Army and served as Captain in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War. He served in the Sikh Regiment.

Captain Amarinder Singh was born to Maharaja Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur of Patiala. They belonged to the Phulkian dynasty of Sidhu Brar descent. The former Punjab CM did his schooling at the Welham Boys’ School and Lawrence School Sanawar, The Doon School, Dehradun.

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He is currently married to Preneet Kaur, who was an MP and Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2014. They have a son and a daughter.

Besides politics, Captain Amarinder Singh has also written a couple of books, those include A Ridge Too Far, Lest We Forget, The Last Sunset: Rise and Fall of Lahore Durbar and The Sikhs in Britain: 150 years of Photographs.

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The latest book that he wrote was in 2014, titled Honour and Fidelity: India’s Military Contribution to the Great War 1914 to 1918.

Political life:

He was inducted into the Congress by Rajiv Gandhi in 1980. However, he quit Parliament in 1984 as a protest against the Army action during Operation Blue Star. He had also resigned from the Congress party. After he quit, he joined the Shiromani Akali Dal.

In 1992, he resigned from Akali Dal only to form another group called Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic) which later joined with the Congress.

Having been appointed as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee in 1999, he served the post till 2002.

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In 2002, he became the Punjab CM and served his first tenure till March 1, 2007.

In 2015, he was elected as President of the Punjab Congress. The following year, he resigned from Lok Sabhi and focussed on the Punjab Assembly Elections.

In 2017, Congress won the elections with the majority and Captain Singh became the CM.