E-Paper
Sukhbir Badal to fight 2027 assembly polls from Gidderbaha
The announcement came after Sukhbir inaugurated the party office in Gidderbaha, part of his home district Muktsar, after an event held at Badal village to observe the 98th birth anniversary of his father and SAD patriarch late Parkash Singh Badal.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday announced that he will contest the 2027 Punjab assembly elections from the Gidderbaha constituency, hinting at shifting from his long-held seat of Jalalabad.
The announcement came after Sukhbir inaugurated the party office in Gidderbaha, part of his home district Muktsar, after an event held at Badal village to observe the 98th birth anniversary of his father and SAD patriarch late Parkash Singh Badal.
The Gidderbaha seat was once an Akali bastion, represented by Badal senior for a record five consecutive terms between 1969 and 1985, and later by his nephew Manpreet Singh Badal from 1995 to 2007. After Manpreet broke away from the SAD and formed the People’s Party of Punjab and later shifted to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he failed to regain the seat. This opened the way for Congress’ Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, who went on to represent the seat for three consecutive terms from 2012 to 2022.
After Warring, who was by now the state Congress president, won the Ludhiana parliamentary seat in 2024 and vacated Gidderbaha, his wife Amrita Warring was unable to retain the seat in the bypoll that followed. As the Akalis stayed away from the byelection, Sukhbir’s one-time close aide Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who jumped ship to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), defeated Amrita by a margin of 21,995 votes. The SAD has had no prominent face in Gidderbaha after Dhillon’s exit.
No word yet on Lambi seat
The SAD is yet to disclose the candidate for Lambi, the seat once synonymous with Parkash Singh Badal, who represented it from 1997 to 2017. Badal, an 11-time MLA and five-time chief minister, contested his last election on this seat in 2022 and was defeated by AAP candidate Gurmeet Singh Khudian.
Sukhbir’s rise & shocking loss on Jalalabad seat
Sukhbir had contested his first assembly elections from Jalalabad in Fazilka district in 2009 to assume the office of deputy chief minister when his father was CM in the SAD-BJP alliance government. Sukhbir nurtured the seat as his stronghold and won again in 2012 and 2017. In the last elections held in 2022, Sukhbir suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of AAP’s novice candidate Jagdeep Goldie Kamboj by over 30,000 votes.
Remembering the SAD patriarch
Earlier in the day, Sukhbir unveiled a statue of his father at a ceremony at Badal village. The SAD chief said he is committed to Badal’s vision of communal harmony and pro-Punjab commitment. In his brief address, he urged the party cadre to fight strategically to bring the SAD back to power.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami said Parkash Singh Badal was a mass leader, known for his humility and punctuality.
Paying tributes to his uncle, former finance minister and BJP leader Manpreet Singh Badal, recalled the SAD patriarch’s commitment to better education and healthcare. “Few people know that Badal saab had acquired a BA (honours) degree in economics from Forman Christian College in Lahore. He established institutes of higher education and medical treatment across the state for the benefit of people,” he added.
