In battle of prestige, Badal kids hit the ground running

Archit Watts

Lambi (Muktsar), May 19

In the absence of former CM Parkash Singh Badal, who passed away in April last year, the Badal family’s next generation has hit the ground as campaigning has picked up.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and the party’s Bathinda candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s three children – Harkirat Kaur Badal, Gurleen Kaur Badal and Anantveer Singh Badal – are actively campaigning for their mother.

Amid the scorching heat, 22-year-old Anantveer today toured several villages in Lambi Assembly segment, sought votes for his mother and appealed to those who had joined other political parties in the recent past to rejoin the SAD.

Though Anantveer did not give any speech, he sat among the people and allowed them to take selfies with him. In the 2022 Assembly poll, he had campaigned for his grandfather Parkash Singh Badal in Lambi.

Similarly, Harkirat is sweating it out in favour of her mother and campaigned in Bathinda city. In the 2022 Vidhan Sabha poll, she had held a door-to-door campaign for her father Sukhbir in Jalalabad segment.

Gurleen, who has always stayed away from politics, is this time campaigning for her mother. The trio was seen accompanying their parents on the day Harsimrat filed her nomination papers.

Sources close to the Badal family said Harkirat and Gurleen would campaign in Bhikhi and Mansa, while Anantveer would campaign in Lambi, Mansa and Budhlada. “This is the first time that the Badals’ next generation is so actively campaigning in an election,” said sources.

Besides, the Badal army of relatives is also campaigning. The Badals have also roped in some of their key supporters from the neighbouring segments for the Bathinda parliamentary constituency.

The three-time Bathinda MP, Harsimrat, is pitted against AAP Lambi MLA and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, Congress candidate Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, BJP nominee Parampal Kaur Sidhu and SAD (Amritsar) candidate Lakhvir Singh Lakha Sidhana.