At 94, SAD patriarch becomes India's oldest candidate in fray; Amarinder, too, files nomination

Chandigarh, Jan 31: Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal (94) became the country's oldest candidate to fight elections as he filed his nomination papers from Lambi on Monday.

Former chief minister Amarinder Singh, too, filed his nomination papers from Patiala Urban Assembly constituency for the February 20 polls in the state.

Badal, a five-time chief minister, completed the paperwork before the returning officer of Malout in Muktsar district, officials said.

With this, he broke former Kerala chief minister VS Achuthanandan's record of being the oldest candidate in the fray - the CPI(M) leader was 92 years old when he fought the Assembly polls in 2016.

The 11-time MLA has been ruling Lambi since 1997.

Capt Amarinder Singh, on the other hand, was accompanied by BJP's Punjab election in-charge Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Singh had been winning from Patiala since 2002 on a Congress ticket. However, the former army man will represent the Punjab Lok Congress, a party he floated after exiting the Congress last year.

The 79-year-old scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family served as chief minister of Punjab twice.

He, however, could not complete his tenure as the Congress unseated him from the post in September amid a bitter power tussle with Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Voting for Punjab's 117 Assembly seats will be held on February 20 and the counting will take place on March 10.