Punjab’s epic battle will be fought in Lambi, where Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will look to retain his seat. Pitted against him is former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
Badal, 90, is from the Badal village in Lambi. Living here are his brothers, cousins, nephews and son, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal. They were all with him in his Shiromani Akali Dal, through the dark years of militancy, and shared the crumbs of office, till Manpreet Singh Badal was sacked.
Lambi is in Bathinda parliamentary constituency, represented by Harsimrat Kaur Badal—Union minister for food processing and wife of Sukhbir Badal.
Amarinder, 74, intends this to be his last electoral battle. He has said that he will ensure that Parkash Badal is defeated in his home constituency.
Word went around that there was a deal between Amarinder Singh and the Badal family to ensure that Aam Aadmi Party candidates are hounded out—part of an AAP rally point that they have tried to make a Goebbelsian truth. Amarinder decided to prove it a canard and jumped into the fray in Lambi.
Unlike Amarinder, who is aggressive and strident, Badal speaks softly, and is warm, said a youth of Channu village. Yet, someone hurled a shoe at Badal, right in his constituency, and the incident has left not just a physical scar. “This is a disturbing trend. Considering I have spent a lifetime in politics fighting for the cause of the united social fabric in Punjab, I am determined to do so till my last breath,” Badal told a correspondent.
Also in the field in Lambi is AAP candidate Jarnail Singh, the MLA from Delhi, better known for hurling a shoe at P. Chidambaram, when the latter was finance minister of India. The AAP tells voters that Captain is here to divide the anti-Badal votes that would have come to it.
For now, the general feeling is that the people have to save the izzat of Punjab and choose from two chief ministers.
