Minister of Food Processing (May 2019 – Present): Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Date of Birth: Badal was born on July 25, 1966.
Place of Birth: She was born at New Delhi and was brought up over there as well.
Parents: Her parents are Satyajit and Sukhmanjus Majithia. Her brother is Bikram Singh Majithia. He is a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Shiromani Akali Dal from the Majithia constituency in Punjab. He has also worked as minister in a Punjab state government that was helmed by Parkash Singh Badal, her father in law. Her family traces its roots to Attar Singh Majithia, who was a prominent general in the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Spouse: She is married to Sukhbir Singh Badal and they have a couple of daughters and a son. Sukhbir Singh Badal has earlier served as the Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab as well as the President of Shiromani Akali Dal. They got married on November 21, 1991.
Political Party: Badal is a member of Shiromani Akali Dal.
Education: Badal is a matriculate and also possesses a diploma in textile design – this programme lasted 3 years. She completed her schooling from Loreto Convent in New Delhi.
Career: She has been a politician throughout. It was in 2009 that Badal started her career by taking part in the nationwide general elections. She was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Bathinda constituency. She defeated Raninder Singh, a Congress candidate by a margin of more than 1.2 lakh votes. Badal gave her first political speech on December 3 that year where she talked about the concern she had for the victims of the 1984 Anti- Sikh riots. She has also started a project named Nanhi Chhan that is supposed to save trees and the girl child. She won again in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This time she defeated Manpreet Singh Badal, a candidate fielded by the Indian National Congress and the People’s Party of Punjab. In the 2019 nationwide elections, she won again defeating Amrinder Singh Raja, a candidate fielded by Congress. The contest was much closer this time around.
Political Milestones: The first major political milestone in the career of Harsimrat Kaur Badal came when she became the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries on May 26, 2014. She has again been appointed in the same position in Modi 2.0.
Related Links:
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Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare: Narendra Singh Tomar
