30 Facts About Amarinder Singh

Amarinder Singh was born on 11 March 1942 and is an Indian politician, military historian, former royal and Indian Army veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab.

Amarinder Singh served as the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee thrice.

Amarinder Singh served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and 2017 to 2021.

Amarinder Singh was born on 11 March 1942 in Patiala, Patiala State, Punjab Province, British India.

Amarinder Singh was born into a royal Punjabi Jat Sikh family of the Sidhu clan to parents Maharaja Sir Yadavindra Singh and Maharani Mohinder Kaur of Patiala.

Amarinder Singh attended the Loreto Convent in Shimla, and Lawrence School in Kasauli, Solan District, before going to The Doon School in Dehradun.

Amarinder Singh served in the Indian Army from June 1963 to December 1966 after graduating from the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy.

Amarinder Singh served as the aide-de-camp to the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Command, Lieutenant General Harbaksh Singh, from December 1964.

Amarinder Singh left the army in early 1965 to look after his family but returned to service with the start of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War.

Amarinder Singh was inducted into the Indian National Congress by Rajiv Gandhi, his friend from school and who later became Prime Minister of India, and was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980.

In 1992, Amarinder Singh broke away from the Akali Dal and formed a splinter party, Shiromani Akali Dal.

Amarinder Singh was defeated by Prem Singh Chandumajra from the Patiala Constituency in 1998 by a margin of 33,251 votes.

Amarinder Singh's served as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on three occasions from 1999 to 2002,2010 to 2013 and 2015 to 2017.

Amarinder Singh has been a member of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha for five terms representing Patiala thrice, Samana and Talwandi Sabo once each.

Amarinder Singh became Chief Minister of Punjab in 2002 and continued until 2007.

Amarinder Singh defeated senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley by a margin of 102,770 votes in 2014 general elections from Amritsar seat.

On 27 November 2015, Amarinder Singh was appointed President of Punjab Congress in the run up to Punjab elections slated for 2017.

Amarinder Singh was sworn in as the 26th Chief Minister of Punjab on 16 March 2017 at Punjab Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh.

Amarinder Singh was appointed president of the Jat Mahasabha in 2013.

Amarinder Singh received criticism for not resolving the Bargari sacrilege case and for a perception that he had been insufficiently zealous in prosecuting previous CM Parkash Singh Badal for involvement in the case.

Amarinder Singh stated that he was humiliated by the Congress' leadership on how they removed him from office.

Amarinder Singh was eventually succeeded by Charanjit Singh Channi as the new chief minister.

Amarinder Singh left the Congress Party, and on 28 October 2021, announced that he would be floating a new party soon and that he would be allying with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Amarinder Singh has announced that his party will contest on all 117 seats in 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election.

In 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, Amarinder Singh lost from the Patiala Assembly constituency to Aam Aadmi Party's Ajit Pal Amarinder Singh Kohli.

In October 2024, after a one and a half year absence from active politics, Amarinder Singh made a public visit to the grain market in Khanna.

In November 2024, Amarinder Singh criticised Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, stating that his support for Khalistan movement separatists in Canada led to the deterioration in India-Canada relations.

Amarinder Singh has written books on war and Sikh history which 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.

Amarinder Singh has one son, Raninder Amarinder Singh, and one daughter, Jai Inder Kaur.

Amarinder Singh is related to Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former Indian Police Service officer Simranjit Singh Mann.