Gurdas Badal, father of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, dies at 88

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, May 15

Former MP Gurdas Singh Badal (88), father of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, passed away around midnight following a cardiac arrest. He had been unwell for a while and was admitted to a hospital in Mohali.

He was the younger brother of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Gurdas Badal unsuccessfully contested the Assembly election from Lambi against Parkash Badal in 2012. However, the personal relationship between the two brothers, ‘Pash’ (Parkash) and ‘Dass’ (Gurdas), remained intact, and they would meet often.

Before their political separation, people referred to them as ‘Pash te Dass di jodi’, as Gurdas used to perform the role of an election manager for his elder brother.

Gurdas’s wife Harmandir Kaur had passed away on March 19 this year at the family’s farmhouse in Badal village here. He is survived by son Manpreet and a daughter.

He had won the Lok Sabha election from Fazilka in 1971. Before that, he served as member of the legislative council (MLC) from March 1967 to April 1969.

Keeping in view the current Covid-19 pandemic, Manpreet Badal has on social media appealed to all to refrain from attending the funeral ceremony, which would be held at Badal village.