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AAP greenhorn defeats Akali patriarch Parkash Singh Badal by 11,396 votes in Lambi
Gurmeet Singh Khuddian wrests Lambi seat from grand old man of Punjab politics and five-time former CM
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and former five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday tasted the second electoral defeat in his political career spanning over 65 years. The great old man of Punjab politics, Badal, was defeated by 11,396 votes by a greenhorn, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from Lambi, the stronghold of Akalis.
It was the 13th state election contested by 94-year-old Badal.
After all 13 rounds of counting on Thursday afternoon, Khuddian, a political turncoat, polled 66,313 votes, while Badal got 54,917 votes on his home turf. Jagpal Singh Abul Khurana of the Congress polled only 10,136 votes.
Khuddian left Congress day Sidhu was named state chief
The AAP nominee’s father, late Jagdev Singh Khuddian, was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Faridkot on the Akali Dal (Mann) ticket in 1989. Khuddian said his victory was a popular mandate against the political ideology of the Badal clan.
He said electors have shown faith in the Delhi model of governance and the pro-people policies of the AAP.
Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, a former president of the Congress in Muktsar district who was considered close to Captain Amarinder Singh, had quit the party in July last year the day Navjot Singh Sidhu was named the state unit chief, to join the AAP.
13th poll outing proves to be unlucky for Badal
After the bifurcation of Punjab in November 1966, Badal contested the first election of divided Punjab in 1967 from the Gidderbaha segment as the candidate of the Akali (Das Sant Fateh Singh) group.
He was defeated by Congress candidate Harcharan Singh Brar, who later became the Punjab CM, with a wafer-thin margin of 57 votes.
Badal was hoping to retain the Lambi seat for the sixth time. He was representing the predominantly rural constituency since 1997.
This was his 13th electoral battle since he won the Malout seat in the undivided Punjab assembly election of 1957.
He remained an activist of the Congress and won from Malout as a Congress candidate in 1957. Then he switched loyalty to the Akali camp.
Out of 13 assembly elections contested to date, he won 11 times. Since 1969, he has been contesting as the Shiromani Akali Dal candidate.
He represented Gidderbaha from 1965 to 1985 in a row for five terms. Thereafter, he moved to Lambi and won five times in a row again in 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017.
