He is an old warrior, say people in his party. Not surprisingly, at the age of 94, Parkash Singh Badal has taken to the streets campaigning to save his citadel from collapse.
The former Punjab chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch has started door-to-door campaigning in his home constituency of Lambi. While it is yet to be officially announced whether he will contest this election or not, it did not deter Badal from carrying out the traditional method of campaigning on foot.
At a time when the Election Commission (EC) is pushing for banning rallies and parties battling with the idea of how to reach out to their voters through social media and virtually Badal Sr. has shown the way. Following the COVID protocol, he has decided not to meet voters in large numbers but to reach out to his constituency through door-to-door campaigns. He gets around in his car, stops along the way, talks to people and moves on.
On Thursday itself, he had met the people of one village and in the coming days wants to complete the talks with the voters of 15 villages of his constituency. For the record, however, he has already held public meetings in nearly 60 of the total 73 villages in the Lambi assembly constituency.
A senior SAD leader said, “He has been an inspiration to many youths of the village and whether he will contest the elections is still not known, but he has never lost touch with the people of Lambi.” Constituency cannot think of any other leader to represent him in place of Badal Senior.
Veteran Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema said, “We have left it to Badal Sahab. It will be his decision whether he wants to contest elections or not. The party would clearly want him to contest the elections.”
During his meetings with people, he binds his relatives, his trusted lieutenants. A SAD leader, who accompanied Badal on a day-long visit, said, “Even today, the level of enthusiasm shown by him and his idea of sticking to the traditional way of campaigning for the polls is not matched.”
Lambi has been a stronghold of the clouds and the Akali Dal chief clearly knows the importance of persisting in it.
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