Preneet Kaur, a Lok Sabha MP and wife of former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, on Thursday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress party had suspended Kaur in February 2023 for anti-party activities. She joined the saffron party in the presence of its national general secretary Vinod Tawde and leaders Tarun Chugh and Sunil Jhakhar.
“I will work for my constituency, my state and the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I had a good innings with the Congress party and I hope I will have a better innings with the BJP,” Kaur told ANI.
Asked whether she would contest the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections, she added, “That depends on the BJP”.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Amarinder Singh and Preneet Kaur's daughter Jai Inder Kaur said that her mother will contest the upcoming general elections from Patiala.
Asked if she would contest the Lok Sabha polls, Jai Inder Kaur said, “No, my mother (Preneet Kaur) will contest from Patiala... My turn will probably come in another 2-3 years (hinting at the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections). She is already working in the constituency, is a four-time MP and is still very active. She is a winning candidate for the BJP.”
Who is Preneet Kaur?
Born on October 3, 1944, in Himachal Pradesh's Shimla, Preneet Kaur is the daughter of Gyan Singh Kahlon and Satinder Kaur. She married Captain Amarinder Singh on October 31, 1964. The couple has two children -- a son named Raninder Singh, and a daughter, Jai Inder Kaur.
Kaur made her debut in politics, contesting the 1999 Lok Sabha elections from Patiala on a Congress ticket. While the party lost the elections, Kaur won from the Patiala seat. She later went on to win from the Lok Sabha constituency again in 2004 and 2009 respectively.
She has served in various committees, including those on Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution; Women's Empowerment and Water Resources. She also served as the Union Minister of State for External Affairs between 2009 and 2012.
However, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Preneet Kaur was defeated by AAP leader Dharamvir Gandhi from the Patiala seat by a margin of over 20,000 votes.
After Amarinder Singh won the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 polls, he vacated the Patiala (Urban) Assembly constituency. Later that year, Kaur fought the by-poll from the seat and defeated the rival candidates.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Preneet Kaur again registered a win from the Patiala Lok Sabha constituency by securing over 45% vote share.
In 2021, Captain Amarinder Singh left the Congress party and announced his party -- Punjab Lok Congress -- ahead of the Assembly elections in the state. After the party's debacle in the 2022 Punjab polls, he merged it into the BJP in September 2022.
According to reports, Preneet Kaur is likely to head the Punjab unit of the BJP.
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