For a party whose politics has traditionally been dominated by veteran male leaders, the Shiromani Akali Dal is witnessing a striking change in its public face. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the party’s lone Lok Sabha MP, is now leading its Punjab Bachao rally at a crucial moment, as the party prepares for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
The shift has acquired a deeply personal dimension for Harsimrat. Days after witnessing the attack on her husband and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal inside a gurdwara in Maharashtra’s Nanded, she has stepped up to lead the party’s political campaign while he recovers. Her most defining moment came in 2020, when she resigned from the Union Cabinet over the contentious farm laws. She subsequently retained her Bathinda Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections.
She told party workers that Sukhbir Badal had sent her to attend the event and expressed confidence that he would return stronger. “This is the fight for Punjab,” she said, asserting that neither the attack nor attempts to intimidate the Akali leadership would weaken the party.
