SINGAPORE – Incoming Nominated MP (NMP) Haresh Singaraju said he is now no longer a member of any political party, after a photo of him wearing a PAP shirt surfaced online.
In a social media post on Jan 6, Dr Haresh said the photo from September 2023 was of a party activity he had previously volunteered at.
It showed Dr Haresh wearing a shirt carrying a PAP logo and the word Tampines, and screenshots of it were posted from his Instagram account to online forum Reddit several times since his NMP appointment was announced on Jan 2. The photo has since been removed from his Instagram account.
“I’m now not a member of any party,” he said on Jan 6.
Dr Haresh, a family physician at National University Polyclinics, added that he had archived the photo as part of a clean up of the Instagram account to protect the identities of the people in the pictures as he had made the account public.
In the post, he said he has received queries about his political affiliation following the photo surfacing. He added that he had previously told the South China Morning Post that the activity he was volunteering at was run by the People’s Association (PA), and clarified that it did not involve the PA, which is a statutory board.
Dr Haresh did not respond to queries from The Straits Times on when he left the PAP, or if he had held leadership positions in grassroots organisations in Tampines.
As at Jan 6, Dr Haresh’s profile on networking site LinkedIn stated that he has been a grassroots leader since January 2023.
ST has contacted the PAP for comment.
The photo of Dr Haresh in a PAP shirt has resurfaced questions about the non-partisan nature of the NMP scheme, which came under scrutiny in February 2025 after two sitting NMPs resigned with the intention to enter party politics.
Lawyer Raj Joshua Thomas and psychiatrist Syed Harun Alhabsyi
submitted their resignations to the Speaker of Parliament on Feb 14,
and Dr Syed Harun later ran in the May 2025 general election. He was elected as MP for Nee Soon GRC under the PAP banner and later appointed Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and National Development.
It was the first time since the scheme was mooted in 1990 that any NMP has resigned before the end of their 2½-year term.
Past NMPs linked to political parties include banker Tan Su Shan, who left the PAP in 2011 to become an NMP. Entrepreneur Calvin Cheng, whose membership in Young PAP was revealed after he was announced as an NMP in 2009, also quit the party.
Former National Kidney Foundation chairman Gerard Ee remained in the PAP after becoming an NMP in 1997, saying then that he would not be subject to the party whip in the role.
The NMP scheme is meant to ensure a wide representation of views in Parliament. Nominees should have performed distinguished public service, brought honour to Singapore or distinguished themselves in their respective fields.
Dr Haresh is one of nine people who were selected to enter Parliament as NMPs earlier in January.
The other eight comprise academics and business and union leaders.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will present them with the instruments of appointment at the Istana on Jan 8, and they will then take their oaths and affirmations at the next sitting of Parliament on Jan 12.