Parkash Singh Badal: News

Parkash Singh Badal is the senior-most leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and a five-time Chief Minister of Punjab. He started from the lower rungs of power to reach the very apex in Punjab politics. Rising from Panchayat and Block levels, he entered the Punjab legislature in 1957 and, in 1970, became the Chief Minister of Punjab for the first time. He was put in detention during the Emergency period (1975-77) and briefly served as the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation in the Morarji Desai government. Badal was elected CM of Punjab for the second time in 1977, serving till 1980. From 1997 to 2002, he served his third term. Badal’s party, SAD, in alliance with the BJP, returned to power in 2007 and 2012, defying the usual anti-incumbency trend in Punjab. Badal served as the CM both times, thus holding the office five times in his life. Interestingly, in 1970, he was the youngest to hold the office of CM, while in 2012, he was the oldest. Badal served as the President of SAD from 1996 to 2008, when his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, succeeded him.