‘He is very happy and thanks everyone for support’: Amritpal Singh's parents after meeting MP-elect

Parents of jailed pro-Khalistan preacher Amritpal Singh, who won as an independent candidate from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib constituency in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, said on Saturday that he was “extremely happy” after getting elected as a Member of Parliament (MP).

Singh, who is lodged in a jail in Assam’s Dibrugrah, defeated Kulbir Singh Zira of the Congress party by a margin of 197,120 votes. While the former received 404,430 votes, Zira got 207,310 votes, according to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

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“He (Amritpal) was very happy…we felt very happy after meeting him. He asked to thank everyone who supported him,” Balwinder Kaur, his mother, told reporters after meeting her son earlier today.

His father, meanwhile, demanded that the central government must withdraw all cases against Amritpal, the chief of Waris Punjab De, a pro-Khalistan outfit.

“He asked to thank every voter who supported him. He will work to serve the public…the public has given him such a huge mandate. The government should withdraw all the cases and allow him to raise Punjab’s voice in the Lok Sabha,” Tarsem Singh said.

Also Read: Amritpal to write to Punjab govt seeking release to take oath as MP

The border state sends as many as 13 members to the 543-seat Lok Sabha. Others elected to the 18th Lok Sabha from here include Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the son of Beant Singh, one of the two bodyguards who assassinated then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in October 1984, months after Operation Blue Star, carried out by the army inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Amritpal, 31, was arrested by the Punjab Police in April last year, weeks after giving them a slip after a massive operation was launched to nab him. He has been booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA).

(With ANI inputs)