Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal announces he'll contest next assembly polls from family fiefdom Gidderbaha
CHANDIGARH: With the assembly elections in Punjab scheduled to be held after 14 months, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday made the surprise announcement that he will fight these polls from Gidderbaha assembly constituency instead of Jalalabad. Interestingly, the Gidderbaha seat was represented by his late father and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal from 1969 to 1985. Sukhbir made the announcement following an intense demand from party workers while inaugurating the party office in Gidderbaha for the Block Samiti and Zila Parishad elections. He also declared that people who had betrayed the party, including Hardeep Singh Dhillon, would never be taken back into the fold. He interacted with party candidates contesting the Block Samiti and Zila Parishad elections from this constituency. He said the Panchayati Raj elections were a litmus test for the party and urged the rank and file to ensure its candidates were elected with flying colours. Sukhbir also attended the Foundation Day celebrations of the Malwa Public School. Talking to The New Indian Express , political analyst Prof Kuldip Singh said that for a Chief Ministerial aspirant, individual victory is meaningless if the person is not able to ensure victory in the state. This constituency is the Badal fiefdom therefore he can win from there and concentrate on the rest of the state, he said. Hardeep Singh Dhillon of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is currently the sitting MLA from Gidderbaha. Having left the SAD and joined the AAP, he won the bypoll from this seat in November last year, defeating Amrita Warring, wife of Punjab Congress President Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, by 21,969 votes. Amrinder Singh Raja Warring was MLA from here twice, but had to resign after becoming an MP from Ludhiana in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He had won the Gidderbaha assembly seat in 2022 by a narrow margin of 1,349 votes, defeating Dhillon who was then in the SAD. Sukhbir had won from Jalalabad three consecutive times in 2009 (bypoll), 2012 and 2017 before losing to an AAP candidate in the 2022 assembly polls. His move to Gidderbaha carries significance as the Badal family has deep roots in the constituencyhis father, former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, served as the MLA from here for five consecutive terms from 1969 to 1985 before shifting to Lambi in 1997 (SAD had boycotted the elections in 1992). After the byelection in 1995, Sukhbir's cousin Manpreet Singh Badal, who was earlier in the Akali Dal, had represented Gidderbaha for four consecutive terms before losing in 2012 to Warring. In last years bypoll, former state finance minister Manpreet, who is now in the BJP, could only get 12,227 votes.
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