To corner Badals in their Bathinda bastion, rival parties field former Akali supporters

Tribune News Service

Archit Watts

Lambi/Muktsar, April 15

To corner the Badals in their home turf Bathinda, all political parties have zeroed in on candidates who themselves or their families were once the supporters of the the SAD.

For instance, AAP candidate Gurmeet Singh Khudian’s father Jathedar Jagdev Singh Khudian was an Akali and an associate of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. He even served as chairman of the Punjab Mandi Board during Parkash Singh Badal’s tenure as CM between 1977 and 1980. Later, Jagdev Singh Khudian joined the SAD (A) and became Faridkot MP in 1989. In the 2022 Assembly poll, Gurmeet Singh Khudian defeated former CM Parkash Singh Badal from Lambi by a margin of 11,396 votes.

Further, Congress candidate Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, who has remained MLA from Talwandi Sabo for four times, had joined the SAD in March 2014 just before the Lok Sabha poll, but left the party and rejoined the Congress in October last year. In 2014, he had won the bypoll from Talwandi Sabo on the SAD ticket with a record margin of 46,642 votes.

Similarly, BJP’s probable candidate Parampal Kaur Maluka’s family members were staunch Akalis till a few days ago. Parampal is daughter-in-law of senior SAD leader and former cabinet minister Sikander Singh Maluka. She along with her husband Gurpreet Singh Maluka, former chairman of Bathinda Zila Parishad, had joined the BJP after quitting the IAS last week. Though Sikander Singh Maluka is still in the SAD, but he has been removed as the party’s Maur segment in-charge.

The SAD (A) candidate, gangster-turned-activist, Lakha Sidhana was also once a confidante of SAD leader Sikander Singh Maluka.

The Bathinda parliamentary constituency has nine Assembly segments and all nine legislators belong to the AAP.

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