CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal's patron and former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal (95) today passed away after brief illness. He breathed his last at Fortis hospital where he was admitted on April 17 for breathlessness.
Parkash Singh Badal remained Chief Minister of Punjab for five terms, Union minister once and Rajya Sabha member for one term. His glorious political life eneded uncermonially when he lost his last assembly election from Lambi constituency in 2022. He and his family faced the allegations of connivance in cases of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib during Badal's government from 2017 to 2022.. Even at the time of his death he and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal were facing charges of conspiracy in firing on innocent Sikhs protesting against sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan.
He is survived by his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and daughter Preneet Kaur.
Born on December 8, 1927, Badal started his political career in 1947. He was Sarpanch of the Village Badal and later Chairman of Block Samiti, Lambi before rising into Punjab politics. He was elected to Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1957 for the first time from the Shiromani Akali Dal political party . He was re-elected in 1969, serving as Minister for Community Development, Panchayati Raj, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. He was Leader of Opposition in 1972, 1980 and 2002. He had been elected in Vidhan Sabha for a total of 10 times, in 1957 and in each election since 1969, except for the February 1992 election, in which he led a boycott of state elections by the Akalis.In 1997 elections he won from Lambi Assembly constituency and had been a consecutive winner in four terms. He was a union minister in Prime Minister Morarji Desai's government in 1977, serving as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.