Regaining control of Lambi presents another difficulty for Badals

The Badals face challenges in the Lok Sabha election, including not just reclaiming control of their home district of Lambi by taking the lead but also capturing the Bathinda parliamentary seat for a fourth term in a row.

This is the first election held after the death of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. Badal had defeated AAP rookie Gurmeet Singh Khuddian in 2022 by 11,396 votes, despite having won five straight from Lambi (1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017). Badal had died on April 25, 2017, after a protracted illness.

The AAP is now running Khuddian, the minister of agriculture, for the Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency. He is giving Lambi great attention, as is his family. This time, Parkash Singh Badal, who previously oversaw this seat and consistently secured a sizable advantage in votes for Harsimrat from Lambi, is not present.

In Lambi, Harsimrat held a lead of 34,895 votes against Raninder Singh in her first election in 2009; that advantage increased to 34,219 votes against Manpreet Singh Badal in 2014; and that led to 16,125 votes against Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in 2019. The older Badal’s disaster in the 2022 Assembly vote shocked the whole Badal family, even if her margin over Lambi had shrunk each time.

The Badal family has now entrusted the management of their election campaign in Lambi to old lieutenants, relatives, cluster in-charges, and village-level committees. Harsimrat Kaur, the sitting member of parliament, is routinely visiting all nine Assembly segments that are part of her parliamentary seat. She has not yet been announced as the SAD contender for this constituency.

According to a top SAD official, Sukhbir Singh Badal, the party president, is now receiving direct input from the leaders of the party during this Assembly segment. Although he is anticipated to run in the next state election, he also bears responsibility for all other candidates.

There are many seats in Bathinda, including Bhucho Mandi, Talwandi Sabo, Maur, Mansa, Sardulgarh, and Mansa Assembly. Harsimrat has never taken the lead from the Mansa Assembly segment in any of the previous three Lok Sabha elections.