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SAD patriarch facing challenge from first-timers on home turf Lambi
SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, an 11-time legislator and former CM, is facing political challenge from first-timers with political lineage on Lambi assembly seat
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leadership is leaving no stone unturned to protect the political prestige of their patriarch and 94-year-old former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is seeking sixth consecutive term from Lambi seat in Muktsar district.
The 11-time legislator is the oldest and most experienced electoral candidate of Punjab and he is facing a political challenge from first-timers on his home turf.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Gurmeet Singh Khuddian whereas the Congress candidate is Jagpal Singh Abul Khurana. Both carry political legacy of their families to take on the grand old man of Punjab politics. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is contesting the elections in Lambi for the first time; so is the saffron party’s nominee Rakesh Dhingra.
The electoral contest on this rural seat is keenly watched, but it is missing the high-powered triangular contest of 2017. In the last election, the Congress had pitted its top leader and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh whereas journalist Jarnail Singh, now deceased, who came into the limelight in 2009 for hurling a shoe at the then Union cabinet minister P Chidambaram, was the AAP candidate. Badal won by 22,770 votes.
The veteran
Badal moved to Lambi in 1997 and won all five state elections thereafter. That year, he recorded his highest winning margin of 28,728 votes, against Gurnam Singh Abul Khurana. The lowest winning margin of 9,187 was recorded in 2007.
The veteran leader has several firsts in his political innings spanning over 75 years. Badal started his political career as a sarpanch in the year of India’s independence. Later, he became Punjab’s youngest CM in 1970. In 2012, at the age of 84, Badal was sworn in as the oldest CM of the state. It was his record fifth innings as the CM.
Defying his age, Badal re-started campaigning on Thursday after recovering from post-Covid infection. “I did not intend to contest elections. But I abide by my party’s decision to contest again. Electors should see the political credentials of all parties to find that only the SAD worked for inclusive development with a focus on communal harmony,” he told a group of villagers of Lambi while welcoming them in the Akali fold.
The challengers
Flying high on AAP’s “Delhi model” narrative, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian is emerging as a formidable contestant against the Akali patriarch. His father, late Jagdev Singh Khuddian, was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Faridkot on the Akali Dal (Mann) ticket in 1989. His death under mysterious circumstances, soon after, is still being talked about.
Gurmeet, 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 (on the day Navjot Singh Sidhu was named the state unit chief) to join the AAP.
At an election meeting at Muktsar’s Mohlan village on Thursday, he attacked not just Badal but even Amarinder for ignoring the interest of Punjab and Punjabis.
“Parkash Singh Badal is a symbol of dynastic politics who worked to protect the interests of his own family. Captain spent over four years of his term as the CM in his luxurious mansion. Punjab has made its mind to bring a political change by moving away from these two power centres,” said Khuddian.
Jagpal Singh Abul Khurana, the general secretary of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, is the political heir of late Gurnam Singh Abul Khurana, a former minister. Gurnam Singh had won from Lambi in 1992 when Akalis did not contest the state elections.
“People want to get rid of the rule of this feudal family. Congress’ CM face Charanjit Singh Channi will work to bring a shift in the state polity where political power will move to a representative of the masses,” Jagpal Singh often says at election meetings.
