Amritsar: Despite facing disenchantment within the party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which is at the lowest ebb in Punjab politics, on Saturday re-elected former party chief Sukhbir Badal as its president for the fourth time at its organisational poll held at Teja Singh Samundari Hall here.
Sukhbir resigned from the top post, largely ruled by the one family, on November 16, 2024, after being declared ‘tankhaiya’ (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht for “damaging Sikh interests”, both as the party chief and as the former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab.
Sukhbir Badal was the only candidate for the post. This election follows a three-month membership drive. Sukhbir Badal was first elected as the party president in December 2008 during his father Parkash Singh Badal’s tenure as Chief Minister.
After his resignation, Sukhbir Badal appointed his long-time family loyalist and former Rajya Sabha member Balwinder S Bhundar as the party’s Working President.
SAD rebels and several Sikh organisations had been asking Sukhbir Badal to step down from the post of President in view of the sacrilege incidents during the Akali Dal’s 10-year stint from 2007-17.
The incidents comprise hurting religious sentiments of the Sikh community by self-styled godman and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who allegedly performed an imitation of Guru Gobind Singh at the sect’s dera in 2007, and sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.
People have rejected the SAD Akali Dal in the Assembly polls for the second consecutive term. Its legislators in the Legislative Assembly of 117 were reduced to a mere three in 2022, down from 15 seats in 2017-22, the lowest-ever number.
The BJP, which had won three seats in 2017 when it had contested in alliance with the Akali Dal, secured two seats in 2022. The Akali Dal was once one of the oldest allies of the BJP. It was among the first to support the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the shortest Prime Minister’s stint in India’s history, in 1996.
To rebuild the beleaguered party Akali Dal and prevent further exodus of leaders, Sukhbir Badal, who was known as the ‘Super Chief Minister’ when the party was at the helm and has business and agricultural interests, has to work hard.
Known as ‘Kaka-ji’, a term used in political circles to refer to the sons, mostly spoilt, of Punjab’s political elite, Sukhbir (63), was Minister of State for Industries in the Vajpayee government in 1998-99. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2001.
His wife, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who held the portfolio of Food Processing Industry in both Modi-led Central governments, is raking up state-specific issues in the Parliament.
In his recent statements, Sukhbir Badal was quoted as saying the Akali Dal would never swerve from its core ‘pro-Punjab’, ‘pro-minority’, ‘pro-farmers’ and ‘pro-poor’ agenda.
He says several issues related to the Sikh community and Punjab remain unresolved, and the party is committed to doing its utmost to ensure they reach their logical conclusion.
The issue included securing the release of all Sikh detainees whose sentences have been commuted by the Central government on the occasion of the 550th Parkash Purb of Guru Nanak Dev, handing over Chandigarh to Punjab, as well as other issues like ensuring the status of Panjab University.
The Akali Dal-BJP (earlier Jana Sangh) alliance has been described as the oldest and strongest alliance in contemporary politics.
No other coalition has weathered so many political battles since March 27, 1970, when Parkash Singh Badal became the country’s youngest Chief Minister for the first time.
To date, the Congress has enjoyed seven full-term governments — 1952, 1957, 1962, 1972, 1992, 2002 and 2017 — in the state. The Akali Dal made history in 1997 by becoming the first non-Congress party to complete its first full term in office since independence, and has repeated its feat in 2007 and 2012.
(IANS)
