Capt Amarinder Singh Maharaja of Patiala

The Last Word
Capt Amarinder Singh
This Singh is not king, as yet
New Delhi, March 29, Roopinder Singh and Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
He loves the good life, yet is equally at home in the rough and tumble of politics. The Akali Dal engineers his expulsion from the House, he makes headlines outside it. The Congress has not made him chief of the state party, people take him to be one anyway. Reams are written about his extra-curricular activities, yet he shrugs them off and they don’t seem to affect his political fortunes.

In his crisp white kurta pajama, equally in his blue blazers, he fills the room with his presence, and floors the audience - there is always one - with his span of information and the felicity with which he cites facts and figures, switching between English and Punjabi as the occasion demands.

Whether he is on the political throne of the state or not, he is called “Maharaj”, even by his detractors - a reflection of both his lineage, as well as his personal style. Yet, right now, there is no throne (read official position) for this king, who is seen as the tallest leader that the Congress can field in the political arena of Punjab.
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Captain Amarinder Singh (born March 11, 1942), is the current Maharaja of Patiala. He served as the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and presently represents the Patiala assembly segment of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. He currently resides in New Moti Bagh Palace, Patiala.

Background
Captain Singh is the son of late Maharaja of Patiala His Highness Yadavindra Singh of Patiala, and Her Highness Rajmata Mohinder Kaur of Patiala. He is the head of the royal house of Patiala belonging to the Phulkian dynasty. He is of Jat ethnicity. He was educated at the Lawrence School Sanawar and The Doon School, Dehradun. He has two children: Yuvraj Raninder Singh and Maharaj kumari Jayainder Kaur.

Army background
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.

Wedding of Captain Amarinder singh and Preneet Kaur. The present Maharaja is His Highness Capt. Amarinder Singh. Heir to the throne is Yuvraj Raninder SinghA 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.