Harsimrat Kaur Badal: The Shiromani Akali Dal leader targets a hat-trick in Bathinda

Union minister and prominent Shiromani Akal Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal is once again in the fray from Bathinda aiming to retain the parliamentary seat for the third consecutive time. However, it is not going to be an easy task for the 52-year-old politician as she faces competition from two sitting Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rebel.

The Bathinda seat in Punjab goes to polls in the seventh and last phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 19.

Family and Personal Life

Harsimrat Kaur was born in July 1966 to Satyajit Majithia and Sukhmanjus Majithia in Delhi. She has a brother Bikram Singh Majithia who is an Akali Dal MLA from the Majitha Assembly seat.

She married former Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal in 1991 and the couple has two daughters and a son together. Five-time Punjab CM and Akali Dal stalwart Parkash Singh Badal is her father-in-law.

Educational Qualifications

Harsimrat did her schooling from Loreto Convent School in New Delhi and later got herself enrolled in a three-year textile design course.

Political Journey

She made her political debut in 2009 when she successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Bathinda seat. She defeated Raninder Singh of the Congres by a difference of over 1.2 lakh votes. During her term, she heavily campaigned for her party and raised several problems faced by the victims of the Sikh riots of 1984.

Later in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, she once again contested from the Bathinda constituency and pipped Manpreet Badal, her husband's cousin, to the MP seat by a narrow margin of some 20,000 votes. After her successful re-election, she was made union minister of food processing in the Narendra Modi cabinet.

Apart from politics, she also stays involved in her husband's businesses across the hotel industry, media and agricultural sector.

Future Prospects

Harsimrat Kaur Badal is contesting from the Bathinda seat for the third consecutive time. She has been pitted against Amrinder Singh Raja Warring of the Congress, Sukhpal Singh Khaira of the Punjab Akta Party and Baljinder Kaur of the Aam Aadmi Party.

In the last two decades, the Shiromani Akali Dal has emerged triumphant on six occasions in Bathinda. However, it was a close contest in the 2014 elections in the constituency as Harsimrat Kaur outperformed closest rival Manpreet Singh Badal by just over 19,000 votes. How it will turn out this time out, remains to be seen.