Waris Punjab De pitches jailed MP Amritpal Singh as chief minister for 2027

Who: The Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), an unregistered party, and its jailed leader Amritpal Singh, MP for Khadoor Sahib. Speakers at its conference included Faridkot MP Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, Amritpal's father Tarsem Singh, Mandeep Singh Sidhu (brother of Deep Sidhu) and Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali.

What: At the party's Baisakhi conference at Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, on Tuesday 14 April 2026, speakers pitched Amritpal for chief minister in the 2027 Assembly elections. Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa called it the "only way" to secure his release. The Tribune's report does not say the party formally named him its candidate. The same pitch had been made at its Baisakhi conference on 13 April 2025, when Khalsa asked workers to spend the next year and a half working to make him chief minister. Four days after the 2026 conference, on 18 April, the party announced an alliance with SAD (Punar Surjit) and a Panthic Unity Coordination Committee with Ayali as convener; the alliance did not last. On 23 April Punjab Police re-arrested Amritpal, hours after his National Security Act detention expired, in the February 2023 Ajnala police station case, and he was sent to judicial custody in Dibrugarh Central Jail. Twelve other cases are pending against him and his supporters. Later reports go further. The Daily Guardian reported on 26 September that Ayali said Amritpal would contest the 2027 elections from two seats, with Dhuri, held by Mann, among four under discussion, and described the party as having declared him its chief ministerial face. On 9 October UNI reported the party weighing a plan to field him against both Mann and Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Where: Takht Sri Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo, in Bathinda district; and Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam, where Amritpal is held.

Why it mattered: Amritpal won Khadoor Sahib in 2024 as an Independent while in jail. He took his oath on 5 July 2024 after a four-day parole and has attended Parliament once; two later parole pleas were rejected by the High Court, with the Punjab government citing law and order concerns. The chief minister pitch makes his imprisonment the centre of the party's 2027 campaign, and whether a jailed candidate can campaign is an open question: the Daily Guardian noted that his continued incarceration could limit his campaigning.