I first met him before 2004 general election at Ludhiana while reporting for a national English daily. A budding politician of the time! Having all that one needs to make a mark on the politicalscape, since he came from Punjab’s most powerful Badal family, but something went amiss. And certainly, it was not his own (un)doing. So, it seems now.

He is Har Sukh Inder Singh Badal, better known as Bubby Badal, now a suave spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab. His father Surinder Singh Badal was the first cousin of the five-time Punjab chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal. Digging more apprises us to the fact that the grandfathers of Bubby Badal and Sukhbir Badal were real brothers.

Being one from the Badal clan, he has been as much part of the Akali politics as his cousin Sukhbir Singh Badal, yet both parted ways. Why? Before getting to know, I must share what Bubby Badal is…!

We reconnected after about two decades in a political debate show on TV and found him as amiable and humble as I had known him so long back. The number of times we have been together in the debates, he defends his party’s position firmly without sounding offensive. An accessible politician who rarely gets provoked is an endearing quality he has imbibed from the senior Badal. This wins him friends and general admirers. And politically sustains him.

A soft-spoken devout Sikh, Bubby started his political career in 1999 as the president of the SAD, Mohali Circle where he concentrates his political activities these days. Later, he became the general office incharge of the party and chief spokesman of Youth Akali Dal in 2007.

Added personal credentials: He is married into the family of former Punjab Assembly Speaker and a powerful Akali leader of Majha region, late Nirmal Singh Kahlon.

Returning to the question: What made him leave his party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) he had worked and grown up in? When everybody would bet on his rise in the Akali politics, he allegedly felt upstaged. 

“I left SAD after being unable to tolerate the corporatisation of a traditional party with sound principles under the influence of Sukbir Badal’s in-laws,” alleged Bubby while continuing “I was born into an Akali family. My father went to jail during Akali agitations and later became chairman of Block Samiti, Lambi in 1978.”

But what made him prefer AAP to other parties?

He reasoned: “The good this about AAP is that it strikes a direct connection with ordinary leaders and voters and does not patronise influence-peddlers. I see AAP as a movement for better primary services like health and education for the common people which political parties across the spectrum had failed to deliver since Independence. So it can never fail. It can have its ups and downs and will emerge as a dominant force with the nationwide presence under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal.”

Given the kind of political crisis SAD is in now, the presence Bubby Badal and the likes of him with their credibility and knack of connecting with the people would have helped. Whose loss is this after all? Bubby Badal joined AAP January 2022 in the presence of chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha who introduced and welcomed him into the party at a presser in Mohali. That he also expresses gratitude to Mohali’s AAP MLA Kulwant Singh for making this happen provides an ample understanding of this Badal’s character