Gurmeet Singh Khuddian led in just six out of 70 villages in Lambi segment

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Lambi/Muktsar, June 10

AAP Bathinda candidate and Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, who lost to SAD nominee Harsimrat Kaur Badal by a margin of 49,656 votes, was able to maintain lead in just six out of 70 villages in the Lambi Assembly segment.

Harsimrat got a lead of 23,264 votes from Lambi, which is one of the nine Assembly segments in the Bathinda parliamentary constituency. Khuddian polled more votes in his native village Khuddian Gulab Singh, besides Sehnakhera, Bhagu, Ghumiara, Roranwali and Mohlan.

Got 225 votes in Badal village

• In Badal village, Harsimrat polled 1,160 votes, Gurmeet Singh Khuddian got 225 votes and Congress candidate Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu secured 377 votes
• In 2018, a relative of the Badals Udayveer Singh Dhillon had lost the election of sarpanch from the Congress-backed candidate Jabarjang Singh ‘Mukha’

As the panchayat and zila parishad elections are to be conducted before August, Khuddian needs to prove his worth in this segment. In the 2022 Assembly poll, he had defeated former CM Parkash Singh Badal by 11,396 votes and emerged as a “giant slayer”. As a result, he was rewarded with a cabinet berth in the Bhagwant Mann-led government in May 2023. Locals said, “It will be an interesting contest this time as SAD has regained its hold over Lambi. While AAP’s graph has come down, the Congress is trying to pick up and the BJP has also performed better than the Assembly poll.”

The minister’s son Ameet Singh Khuddian, who looks after this segment in the absence of his father, said, “There are a few factors behind our defeat, including the money power. We will, however, emerge stronger.”