Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Badal: Punjab shock defeat and past wins
Badal has fought 13 state elections till now and won 11. He contested the first election from the Gidderbaha segment as a candidate of the Akali (Das Sant Fateh Singh) group.
In a shock defeat, five-time chief minister and Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday lost his stronghold of Lambi by 11,396 votes to an AAP greenhorn - Gurmeet Singh Khuddian. This was the second-ever electoral defeat that the 94-year-old veteran faced in his political career of 65 years. Badal has fought 13 state elections till now and won 11.
Amid buzz that the seasoned leader may withdraw himself from active politics soon, here is a look at his career:
> Parkash Singh Badal entered into politics in 1947 and was elected to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha ten years later in 1957.
> He was a Congress campaigner and won from Malout as its candidate in 1957. However, he switched loyalty to the Akali Dal camp.
> After Punjab's bifurcation in 1966, Badal contested the first state election from the Gidderbaha segment as a candidate of the Akali (Das Sant Fateh Singh) group. He was defeated by the Congress' Harcharan Singh Brar by a very small margin of 57 votes.
> Parkash Singh Badal has been contesting from the SAD since 1969. He became the party's president in 1995 and remained in charge till 2008 after his son Sukhbir took over.
> The SAD patriarch has been representing Lambi since 1997 and won the constituency consecutively till the 2017 elections in Punjab.
> He first became Punjab's chief minister in 1970 and held the top post five times.
> Parkash Singh Badal has been a vocal critic of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue and was even put behind bars for leading the Nehar Roko Morcha in 1982.
(With inputs from Punjab Bureau)