Punjab Election 2022: At 94, Parkash Singh Badal is fighting fit - Meet the Akali patriarch

Age: 94

Total elections fought: 12

Gearing up for his 13th electoral battle.

Oldest candidate in this Punjab election.

Meet the grand old man of Punjab politics:

Parkash Singh Badal.

Akali Dal patriarch, five-time chief minister.

He is now fighting his 13th Assembly election. He hopes to retain the Lambi seat for the sixth consecutive time. Badal has been representing the predominantly rural constituency since 1997.

An 11-time MLA, Badal started his political career in 1947 as the sarpanch of his native Badal village.

Born on December 8, 1927, Badal won his first Assembly poll as a Congress candidate in undivided Punjab in 1957.

He then switched to the Akali camp and lost the first election of the divided Punjab in 1967 to Congress candidate by a margin of 57 votes.

That was the only defeat Badal faced in his over seven decades of political life.

Apart from being CM for record 5 times, Badal also has the ​distinction of being Punjab's youngest and the oldest chief minister.

He first took oath as chief minister at the age of 42 in 1970, becoming the youngest Punjab CM.

In 2012, at the age of 84, Badal was sworn in as the oldest CM of the state. It was his fifth innings as CM.

But age is just a number for Parkash Singh Badal. Even at 94, he is on foot meeting people in his constituency and going door to door.

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