SINGAPORE – If it were up to WP new face Harpreet Singh Nehal, he would not be “parachuted anywhere safe” in the upcoming election.

Ever since the senior counsel was spotted in 2023 on walkabouts and house visits in the opposition party’s blue polo shirt, speculation has been rife about whether he will contest the general election, and, if so, where he may be fielded.

The 59-year-old has been most visible in Marine Parade-Braddell Heights GRC, though there is also talk of him being fielded in East Coast GRC. Another possible scenario is that Mr Singh – regarded as a “star catch” for the WP – could stand in a single seat.

Asked about this at an interview on April 11, he said: “I made it very, very clear, I don’t want to be parachuted anywhere safe. That is not who I am.”

He did not want to be drawn into naming constituencies, but the WP is said to have a firm grip on Hougang SMC and Aljunied GRC.  

The opposition party has held the single seat since 1991, and has successfully defended Aljunied since its win there in 2011. In the 2020 election, the WP also won the newly created Sengkang GRC.

Would he decline to run if asked to stand somewhere safe?

Replying, Mr Singh emphasised that he would “fight tooth and nail against it... I have made that absolutely clear”.

This stems from his belief that Singaporeans want to see politicians who are prepared to take risks, speak up and fight for every last vote, he said.

A managing partner at Audent Chambers, Mr Singh began volunteering with the WP in 2021 and became a member in 2023.

Speaking to The Straits Times at his home in the east of Singapore, he said he entered politics to correct the course that Singapore is taking. “We are going in the very opposite direction of where Singapore needs to go,” he said.

Mr Singh listed several episodes that have troubled him: Several PAP leaders saying in 2019 that Singapore was not ready for a non-Chinese prime minister, the changes to the elected presidency in 2016, as well as the passing of “very broad, wide, sweeping laws” such as the fake news law – the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act – and the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act.

These are all indicators that the system is clamping down at a time when it sho...