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Journalism of Courage
Soon after filing his nomination on Wednesday — Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patron, Parkash Singh Badal, who will be the oldest candidate to contest any state elections in the country at 94 — on Wednesday toured villages his Lambi constituency and appealed to the voters to support him.
Badal senior, in his address to the people of Lambi, said, “My party [the SAD] holds supreme importance in my life. I was told to contest the polls from Lambi in the interest of the party. So I decided to do the same. This is not my first election. I know this area for the past 70 years and people here know me for the same time period.”
Badal senior on Wednesday visited the villages of Middukhera Dhani and Lohara where he personally met people and asked them to vote for him. He said, “I have already personally visited all the villages of Lambi. Around 5-6 villages were left, which, too, I will cover personally. I was told that there is no need to come here and campaign.
But I believe in making a personal appeal for votes, which I am doing.”
He said, “It is now your responsibility to consider this as your own election and vote for me like you have been doing for the past many years.”
Responding to first-timer candidates pitted against him, he said, “It is not a question of naujawan or buzurg candidate. The question is that of the party’s interest”, indicating that the SAD was leaning on his political experience in the multi-cornered contest for the upcoming polls. Parkash Singh had in 2019 indicated that he was no longer keen on contesting any more elections, but wanted to keep serving the party.
Though the Punjab wing of Shiv Sena has extended its support to the Shiromani Akali Dal recently Badal senior said he was not aware of any such development.
Asserting that the SAD was the only regional party in Punjab, he said, “We are the only party which has a love for the state of Punjab, we know the problems of Kisan, Mazdoor, and Vyapari. Dalit bhaichara is still facing many problems in Punjab and we need to work towards resolving them.”
He added, “The SAD is the only party which is focused on improving the communal harmony of the state. If I talk about the performance of the Congress, then former CM Captain Amarinder Singh couldn’t fulfill any of his promises and to save face, they replaced him with Charanjit Channi. They are just trying to fool the masses.”
