Lokmat Parliamentary Awards 2023: Harsimrat Kaur Badal Named Best Female Parliamentarian

The fifth edition of the Lokmat Parliamentary Awards 2023, held in the capital city of Delhi today, witnessed the distribution of awards. The awards were being presented by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari. Many stalwarts from the political arena were present at the event. On this occasion, Harsimrat Kaur Badal was named the best female parliamentarian. She is a member of Shiromani Akali Dal Party. Her husband Sukhbir Singh Badal is former deputy chief minister of Punjab and the president of Shiromani Akali Dal. She resigned from the cabinet on 17 September 2020 to protest against few farmer related ordinances and legislation.

Badal started her political career with the 2009 Indian general election. She was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Bathinda constituency after defeating Indian National Congress candidate Raninder Singh by 120,960 votes. Her first speech was on 3 December 2009, where she expressed her concern about the victims and survivors of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. She was part of a project named "Nanhi Chhan" to save girl child and trees. Badal has been re-elected as an MP from Bathinda in 2014 having defeated Indian National Congress-People's Party of Punjab joint candidate, Manpreet Singh Badal. For this, she was appointed in the Modi government as State Minister for Food Processing. She got elected for 3rd time in a row from Bathinda in 2019 Lok Sabha election. She defeated the Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring in a close fight with around 21,000 votes. In May 2019, she continued her Ministry of Food Processing Industries. She resigned from the cabinet on 17 September 2020 to protest against the new farm bills passed by the government.