The last rites of Gurdas Singh Badal, father of Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and brother of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, were performed at his native village Badal in Muktsar district with state honours on Friday.
A former MP, Gurdas Badal, 90, died at Fortis hospital in Mohali on Thursday night. He was suffering from age-related ailments.
Besides Manpreet, Parkash Singh Badal, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, Union food processing industries minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among those present at the cremation.
Cabinet ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sham Sundar Arora, Vijay Inder Singla, Bharat Bhushan Ashu and Aruna Chaudhary were also present. Captain Sandeep Singh Sandhu, political secretary to chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, also attended the funeral ceremony.
Congress MP Jasbir Singh Dimpa, party MLAs Rana Gurjit Singh, Angad Singh and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring were also present.
SAD leaders Bikram Singh Majithia, Daljit Singh Cheema, Sikander Singh Maluka and Janmeja Singh Sekhon also attended the cremation.
Besides, Bathinda deputy commissioner (DC) B Srinivasan, Muktsar (DC) MK Aravind Kumar and SSPs of Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar were also present.
{{/usCountry}}Besides, Bathinda deputy commissioner (DC) B Srinivasan, Muktsar (DC) MK Aravind Kumar and SSPs of Bathinda, Mansa and Muktsar were also present.
{{/usCountry}}Gurdas Badal was elected as Akali Dal MP from erstwhile Fazilka Lok Sabha segment in 1971. He was also elected as MLA from Lambi assembly segment in 1977 as SAD candidate.
He unsuccessfully contested the 2012 assembly polls against Parkash Singh Badal as candidate of erstwhile People’s Party of Punjab (PPP), which was formed by Manpreet after he quit the SAD.
Manpreet’s mother Harminder Kaur, 84, had died on March 19. The finance minister wrote on Facebook that his father’s health had started deteriorating after his mother’s death and he was on life support system for the past few days.