Party banks on ‘giant killer’ Gurmeet Singh Khudian to wrest Bathinda seat
Archit Watts
Lambi (Muktsar), March 14
Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, who defeated former CM Parkash Singh Badal on his home turf Lambi in the latter’s last electoral fight in 2022 by a margin of 11,396 votes, is now the AAP candidate for the Lok Sabha election from Bathinda parliamentary constituency. The seat is being represented by Badal ‘bahu’ Harsimrat Kaur Badal since 2009.
Father was Faridkot MP
Gurmeet Singh Khudian (61) hails from Khudian village in Lambi Assembly segment, which is part of the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. He is son of Jathedar Jagdev Singh Khudian, who was elected MP from Faridkot constituency in 1989 as a SAD (A) candidate.
Harsimrat has so far defeated Raninder Singh (2009), Manpreet Badal (2014) and Amrinder Singh Raja Warring (2019), but her victory margin declined on each occasion.
Khudian (61) hails from Khudian village in Lambi Assembly segment, which is part of the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. He is son of Jathedar Jagdev Singh Khudian, who was elected MP from Faridkot constituency in 1989 as a SAD (A) candidate, but had disappeared under mysterious circumstances within a few days and his body was found from a canal.
Before joining the AAP in July 2021, Gurmeet Singh Khudian remained in the Congress for nearly three decades and used to manage the election campaign of Mahesh Inder Singh Badal, who thrice (twice as Congress nominee and once Independent) contested the election against his own cousin Parkash Singh Badal.
A friend of Khudian said, “The Congress failed to assess the power of this humble politician, who knows all the election strategies of the Badal family. The AAP has now given him a bigger responsibility to defeat the second generation of the Badals in their own area. The talks in this regard were doing rounds the day he was made a Cabinet Minister.”
Speaking over the phone today, Khudian said, “About a month ago, I was told that I might be fielded from Bathinda. I am thankful to the party for reposing faith in me. Earlier too, I contested the election against the Badal family and got elected.”
