Badal couple wins Bathinda, Ferozepur seats in Punjab

Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and her husband and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Thursday won their respective parliamentary seats in Punjab.

Harsimrat Kaur was locked in a multi-cornered contest from the Akali Dal stronghold of Bathinda, where the others in the fray were Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Warring, AAP's Baljinder Kaur, Punjabi Ekta Party candidate and Bholath legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira.

Two-term MP from the seat, she drubbed Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Warring by a slender margin of over 20,000 votes.

In 2014, Harsimrat Kaur scraped through by 19,500 votes against her estranged cousin Manpreet Badal, who is now a Cabinet Minister in the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government.

Her husband and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, 56, the man known for micro poll management of his 98-year-old party, won Ferozepur by a record margin of 1,97,008 votes.

Sukhbir Badal, who is the son of party patron Parkash Singh Badal, defeated SAD rebel and Congress nominee Sher Singh Ghubaya.

Sukhbir Badal had contested the Lok Sabha polls from Faridkot thrice -- 1998, 1999 and 2004. He won in 1998 and 2004.

A billionaire businessman, with interests in hotels, resorts, media, agriculture and other industries and known for his corporate style of functioning, Sukhbir Badal knows how to set the ball rolling and hit back at his political rivals with surprises.

The SAD fielded candidates in 10 out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, leaving three seats for alliance partner, the BJP.

The Akali Dal and its alliance partner managed to win two seats each, while the state's ruling Congress won eight seats and the AAP one.

Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats went to the polls in the seventh and final phase of the general elections on May 19.

--IANS

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