Shiromani Akali Dal Patriarch and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal passed away on Tuesday evening. He was 95 years old.
Born on 8 December 1927, in Abul Khurana, near Malout, he belonged to a Jat Sikh family. He graduated from the Forman Christian College in Lahore, now in Pakistan. He started his career in politics in 1947 as a Sarpanch of village Badal and was later elected to Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1957 for the first time. He served as Punjab CM from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017.
He received the Padma Vibhushan, second highest civilian award from Government of India in 2015.