Preneet Kaur, veteran Congress MP from the Patiala Lok Sabha segment and former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s wife, will join the BJP on Thursday.
Though her decision to join the BJP was long-expected, has this last-minute swtich-over been orchestrated to get a LS ticket. Preneet Kaur’s age goes against her (she is 80 and well past Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75-year cap to contest the Lok Sabha elections), it is believed she remains the lead BJP contender for the Patiala Lok Sabha segment.
There are also reports that her daughter Jai Inder Kaur may be fielded from Patiala. However, insiders say Jai Inder might struggle in Patiala, as the BJP has yet to establish a presence in the fiercely competitive Punjab region. The BJP will demand Patiala and additional seats in negotiations with the Shiromani Akali Dal for a pre-poll agreement in the state. The BJP has historically contested Gurdaspur, Amritsar, and Hoshiarpur when in coalition with the SAD.
In September 2022, Capt. Amarinder Singh, combined the Punjab Lok Congress with the BJP, enlisting their children, Raninder Singh and Jai Inder Kaur, in the saffron forces.
Preneet Kaur has represented Patiala in the Lok Sabha since 1999. She was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 and re-elected in the 2004, 2009 and 2019 LS poll. In 2014, her husband Capt Amarinder Singh had contested the Lok Sabha poll instead of her and defeated then Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, the late Arun Jaitley, from the Amritsar parliamentary seat despite a Modi wave.
Preneet was a Punjab MLA between 2014 and 2017.
She was Minister of State for External Affairs from 2009 to October 2012 in the Congress-led UPA-2.
