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Communal harmony, law and order will be priority: SAD patriarch Badal after voting
Accompanied by SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, five-time CM Parkash Singh Badal seeks re-election for sixth term
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, 94, the oldest candidate in the fray, cast his vote at the Government Primary School at Badal village in his Lambi assembly constituency in Muktsar district as Punjab voted on Sunday.
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“Law and order, maintaining peace and communal harmony will remain the priority of the SAD,” Badal said, while his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is the SAD president, expressed confidence that his party will sweep the elections this time.
Bathinda SAD MP and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said: “The Aam Aadmi Party is trying to radicalise Punjab which would be the death knell for the border state.”
Badal Senior said he had no wish to contest the assembly elections this time, but changed his decision to keep power within Punjab. “My party and people of Punjab, who have been supporting me for past 60 years, forced me to get into the fray one more time. The SAD is the only party that has roots in Punjab. All our decisions are taken among the people of Punjab, while the other parties run to Delhi every time,” he said at a rally in Lambi on Thursday.
Harsimrat said the SAD was also confident of defeating Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu in Amritsar East constituency from where her brother and former state minister Bikram Singh Majithia is fighting the election.
