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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Punjab’s Bathinda could see SAD, Congress fight again
The Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur, the Union food processing industries minister, is the sitting member of Parliament from Bathinda. She is the wife of SAD president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The Bathinda Lok Sabha seat, one of the 13 parliamentary constituencies in Punjab, is a pocket borough of the Badal family.
The Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur, the Union food processing industries minister, is the sitting member of Parliament from Bathinda. She is the wife of SAD president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
In 2014, she defeated her estranged brother-in-law Manpreet Singh Badal, who contested on the Congress symbol as a coalition candidate of the Congress and his erstwhile People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). She defeated Raninder Singh, the son of present chief minister Amarinder Singh, by a margin of over 1 lakh votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha election.
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The Bathinda seat will see a close contest between the SAD and Congress with others like the Aam Aadmi Party and Punjabi Ekta Party also getting in the poll fray.
Polling in Bathinda will be held on May 19 and votes will be counted on May 23.
Here are some facts about the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat:
State: Punjab
Name of the Lok Sabha constituency: Bathinda
Polling date: May 19
Sitting MP, party: Harsimrat Kaur, SAD
Winning margin in 2014: 19,395
Runner up name, party: Manpreet Singh Badal, Congress
Number of voters in 2014: 1,176,767
Percentage of votes polled in 2014: 77.15%
Number of women voters in 2014: 712,170
Number of polling booths in 2014: 1,570
