The fight in Bhatinda is between Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Congress' Amarinder Singh Raka, AAP's Baljinder Kaur and Punjab Ekta Party (PEP) chief Sukhpal Singh Khaira.
New Delhi: Union minister and prominent Shiromani Akal Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal is looking for a hat-trick win at Punjab's Bathinda during the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The 52-year-old politician is facing fierce competition from two sitting Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) rebel.
The polling in Bathinda parliamentary constituency was held on May 19 in the 7th phase (last phase) of the general election 2019.
The fight here is between Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Congress' Amarinder Singh Raka, AAP's Baljinder Kaur and Punjab Ekta Party (PEP) chief Sukhpal Singh Khaira.
Harsimrat 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.
It is a rural constituency with an approximate literacy rate of 65.45%. In 2014, there were 15,25,289 voters of which 8,13,119 were male, and 7,12,156 were female and 14 voters of the third gender. Bathinda has an estimated Scheduled Caste population of 34.18% and a Scheduled Tribe population of 0%.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal of SAD (Alliance with NDA) won in this seat defeating INC. SAD polled 5,14,727 of the total of 11,80,468 votes polled. SAD won the seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The voter turnout in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was 77.16%.
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