Parkash Singh Badal, five time chief minister of Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch and former Union Agriculture Minister, died in Mohali on April 25, 2023. He was 95.
Badal served as the chief minister of Punjab for five terms: from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, from 2007 to 2012 and from 2012 to 2017.
He was both the youngest chief minister of Punjab in 1970 (43) and the oldest chief minister of Punjab in 2012 (85).
Badal began his political career in 1947, the year India got independence, as a sarpanch of his native village Badal. He was 29 at the time.
He was elected to Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1957 for the first time from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) political party.
He served as SAD president from 1995-2008, and has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly for a record 10 times.
Tributes from several political leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and BJP President JP Nadda poured in on Monday evening on various social media platforms following Badal’s demise.
On April 16, Badal was brought to Mohali’s Fortis Hospital with acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. His health condition deteriorated there and he breathed his last around 8 pm on Monday, April 25, 2023.
The Centre has declared two days of mourning following the stalwart Sikh leader’s death.