Bathinda mp Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said she had secured a historic mandate by defeating a four party united opposition led by Manpreet Badal.In a statement here, Badal said the 2014 contest in Bathinda would go down in history as a unique contest when a SAD - BJP candidate defeated a joint candidate of a conglomeration of four parties including the Peoples Party of Punjab (PPP), Congress, CPI and the SAD- Longowal.Mrs Badal also took the opportunity to thank the people and express gratitude to them for the huge voter share polled by her. "I am grateful to the people for giving me the highest voter share of 43.7 per cent which is second only to the AAP Sangrur candidate", she said.Reminding Mr Manpreet Badal not to try to hoodwink the people as was his habit, the mp said it was a fact that she had won a clear and decisive victory and even increased her vote share vis a vis the 2012 assembly elections. She said in stark contrast her rival Manpreet Singh Badal lost 1.15 lakh votes despite stitching together a grand coalition and even succeeding in propping up a weak Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate.
Badal said the PPP- Congress -- CPI - SAD (Longowal) had together secured 6.10 lakh votes in the 2012 assembly elections. "Now the same combination led by Manpreet is left with just 4.94 lakh votes. I on the other hand have made up the short fall of more than one lakh votes and crossed over to take the lead.
The mp said forget political opportunism displayed by Manpreet, even national parties had aligned against her. "The Congress and the CPI failed to arrive at an understanding with each other on any seat in the country except Bathinda".She said even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) colluded with Manpreet to put up an ineffective and weak candidate who deliberately led a lack lustre campaign. She said a former PPP leader had brokered a deal between the AAP leadership and Manpreet under which the candidature of the AAP candidate was first delayed till the last minute before the nomination was given to a rank outsider. She said this conspiracy was borne out by the results with the AAP candidate securing only a 7 per cent vote share even as the party secured an average vote share of 24 per cent in the State and even 48 per cent in neighbouring Sangrur.
Tracing the steps taken by Manpreet Badal during the campaign, she said it was for the people to judge whether they were that of a prospective victor. "Manpreet first dumped his own party the PPP when he realised that he would lose his security deposit if he stood election on the kite symbol. He then switched to the hand symbol in desperation to bolster his chances and even pleaded with a fledgling party - AAP to prop up a weak candidate". She said all this did not help much with Manpreet losing from the two Congress segments in the constituency.Speaking about herself, Mrs Badal said she had gone to the people on the strength of the work done by her and was grateful to the people for reposing faith in her candidature and promised to remove all shortcomings.In the end, Mrs Badal said Manpreet had cobbled together everything under the sun leaving aside all political ideologies in a desperate bid to dislodge her. "He has miserably failed in his attempt because he has relied on empty words and flowery couplets while I have always believed in hard work. I look forward to face him again in 2019 whatever new combination he may be part of.