Amid rumours that former Finance Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manpreet Singh Badal may soon join the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and could even be fielded as the party’s candidate from Gidderbaha in the 2027 state polls, he on Monday issued a clarification through a social media post, stating, “Let’s not give space to rumours or misinformation.”Notably, Manpreet remains active in both Gidderbaha and Bathinda Urban Assembly constituencies. He had joined the BJP in January 2023.He had earlier won four consecutive terms as a SAD candidate from Gidderbaha before losing in 2012 to then first-time Congress candidate Amrinder Singh Raja Warring. At that time, Manpreet contested on the ticket of his own party, the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). He later merged the PPP with the Congress.He served as Finance Minister during the SAD-BJP government till 2010.He was elected MLA from Bathinda Urban on a Congress ticket in 2017 and served as Finance Minister in the Congress governments led by Capt Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi.However, he suffered a heavy defeat in the 2022 Assembly election from Bathinda Urban to first-time AAP candidate Jagroop Singh Gill. He later joined the BJP in 2023 and stepped up his activities in his old constituency, Gidderbaha, in his home district of Muktsar.In 2024, he contested the Gidderbaha bypoll as a BJP candidate but lost to AAP’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon.Manpreet was not available for comment, but a close relative said that the rumours regarding the possibility of his joining the SAD were baseless.