Veteran Akali leader and former Punjab agriculture minister Tota Singh died in Chandigarh on Saturday.
The former Akali Dal chief died of prolonged illness. He was a sitting member of the SGPC. He suffered from pneumonia last year that infected his lungs. He was on medication for the past few months.He started his political career from the grassroots in the 1960s after becoming sarpanch of his native Didare Wala village, which falls in Nihalsinghwala Assembly segment of Moga district. In 1969, he was elected district president of the Akali Dal in Ferozepur, the biggest district of the state. Faridkot, Muktsar, Fazilka and Moga used to be part of the border district then.
He was inducted into the cabinet by Parkash Singh Badal and was given the agriculture department. Unfortunately, on May 5, 2012, just weeks after becoming the minister, he resigned from the cabinet after he was sentenced to one-year jail by a special court for misuse of official machinery during his previous tenure as minister.He filed an appeal in the high court. The court accepted the appeal and stayed his conviction. He was again inducted into the cabinet and given the same portfolio. Tota Singh lost the last two assembly elections (2017 and 2022) but he remained a key figure in the party throughout his political life of almost three decades.
