Parkash Singh Badal on thanksgiving tour in Lambi segment

Lambi (Muktsar), March 20

After the SAD’s worst-ever performance in the Assembly polls and his defeat to a first-timer in Lambi, 94-year-old former Chief Minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal today started a thanksgiving tour on the home turf. AAP leader Gurmeet Singh Khudian defeated Badal by 11,396 votes.

The last time Badal lost an Assembly election was in 1967, when he was defeated by Harcharan Singh Brar (Congress) from the Gidderbaha segment by just 57 votes.

Will keep doing social work

People can approach me for any kind of help. I will keep doing social work, be it giving financial help for any wedding, health issue or education. —Parkash Singh Badal, SAD patron

Thanking the voters and SAD workers at his own Badal village this morning, Badal said: “There is nothing to feel sad about the election results. The winning and losing are part of every election. If a farmer faces crop failure, he does not stop sowing the next crop. Similarly, we have to go amid the public to know our shortcomings and work for the public welfare. Even Indira Gandhi once lost the election.”

The former CM today visited Badal, Gaggar, Mithri, Singhewala and Fatuhiwala villages here. The SAD patron was the oldest candidate in the fray in the recently held elections. Before the reorganisation of the state, Badal first contested the Assembly election from Malout on the ticket of Indian National Congress (INC) in 1957 and won. Thereafter, he won five times in a row from Gidderbaha (1969, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1985) and then continuously won five times from Lambi (1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017). —