Five-time former Punjab chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, known for his winsome humility and strong rural roots, died on Tuesday. He was 95. “Mr. Badal passed away at around 8 p.m.,” hospital director Abhijeet Singh told The hospital issued a medical bulletin shortly afterwards in which it said, “Despite appropriate medical management, S. Parkash Singh Badal succumbed to his illness. Fortis Hospital Mohali deeply condoles the death of S. Parkash Singh Badal.”
During his long political career, Badal served the state as chief minister five times: 1970–71, 1977–80, 1997–2002, 2007–12, and 2012–17. At 94, Badal last year became the country’s oldest candidate to fight a state election when he entered the electoral battle for the 13th time but could not save his pocket borough of Lambi in Muktsar district, only his second defeat in a political career spanning more than seven decades.
Born on December 8, 1927, in Abul Khurana, near Malout, Badal graduated from the Forman Christian College, Lahore. His political journey began in 1947, when he became the ‘Sarpanch’ (village head) of Badal village, then in Bathinda district. Thereafter, he became the chairman of the block samiti.
He became an MLA for the first time in 1957, when he was elected to the Punjab Assembly from Malout constituency as a Congress member. He then moved to the Gidderbaha assembly seat from where he was elected as an MLA on a SAD ticket during the 1969 mid-term poll. Badal was re-elected in the 1972 elections, but as the SAD could not form a government, he became the leader of the opposition.
Badal was chief minister for 15 months in 1970–71 and for 32 months in 1977–1980. During the 1977 elections, he again won the Gidderbaha constituency and became the chief minister of the SAD-Janata Party government. His government passed the Punjab Women and Children Development and Welfare Corporation Bill, 1979, to ensure the development of women and children in the state. He was again elected to the state assembly in the June 1980 and September 1985 elections from the Gidderbaha assembly constituency.
In 1986, Badal formed the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal). Badal, after shifting to Lambi constituency, was elected legislator in 1997 and became the chief minister on February 12 of that year as the leader of the SAD-BJP government.
During this tenure, his government took the decision to provide free electricity and waive land revenue for farmers. Badal was re-elected from Lambi seat in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017. In 1967, he lost the Gidderbaha seat to the Congress’ Harcharan Singh Brar by a margin of just 57 votes. This was his first electoral loss. The second came last year. The grand old man of Punjab politics has not been keeping well for the past few years. He was hospitalised in June of last year following complaints related to gastritis and bronchial asthma.