Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s wife Surinder Kaur Badal passed away on Tuesday afternoon after a two-year battle with cancer at Chandigarh’s Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research.
The chief minister, his son deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, daughter Preneet Kaur and daughter-in-law
Harsimrat Badal were at Badal’s side when she breathed her last having only recently completed 72 years.
Though largely in the background, Surinder Kaur Badal is known to have been a constant companion and source of strength to Mr Parkash Singh Badal, particularly in the troubled 1980’s and 1990’s and during his earlier incarceration in the mid-1970’s.
Her demise has been widely condoled, including by almost every significant functionary in the rival Congress Party led by former chief minister Amarinder Singh who sent personal condolences to both Mr Badal and Mr Sukhbir Badal.