Sukhbir faces major revolt as senior SAD leaders ask him to step down
After a marathon meeting in Jalandhar, senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sikander Singh Maluka, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Sarwan Singh Phillaur also announced Akali Dal Bachao Lehar. This is the first serious challenge to Sukhbir’s leadership after Akali Dal’s poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls
Weeks after party’s disastrous outing in the parliamentary elections in which it could only muster one out of 13 seats in Punjab, a group of senior leaders in the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday openly revolted against party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, seeking his immediate resignation.
After a marathon meeting in Jalandhar, senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sikander Singh Maluka, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Sarwan Singh Phillaur also announced Akali Dal Bachao Lehar. “A personality having a strong political and religious understanding should be given the command of the party,” said Chandumajra, who led the meeting.
This is the first serious challenge to Sukhbir’s leadership after Akali Dal’s poor showing in the Lok Sabha polls in which the party’s vote shrunk to an all time low of 13.5%. An open revolt by a section of leaders may push the party to a split.
On his part, Sukhbir termed the Jalandhar meeting as another attempt to weaken the Panthic force and the Akali Dal.
With the party facing severe existential crisis due to its repeated electoral drubbings in the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls and the recently held Lok Sabha elections where the Panthic party saw its vote share sliding to 13.5% from 18.5 (2022 assembly polls), the worries of the senior leadership are mounting. After the Lok Sabha poll results, SAD MLA from Dakha (Ludhiana) Manpreet Ayali had announced to boycott all party activities until the Jhundan Reforms Committee that had reportedly recommended sweeping changes in the party organisation, more role for young leaders and freeing the party from control of one family, the Badals, are implemented.
Chandumajra said the people of Punjab are dejected over the working of the party. “The party needs to introspect for revival as a religious and political entity. Sukhbir should understand the sentiments of the workers and need to sacrifice to step down from the post of president,” he added. Maluka seconded his views.
This is the second meeting in five days by these leaders. On Friday, the meeting was chaired by party patron Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa.
“The party has been decimated. Sukhbir has no moral ground to be party president and must quit immediately,” said Maluka, whose daughter-in-law Parampal Kaur contested unsuccessfully against Sukhbir’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Bathinda as a BJP nominee. Harsimrat won the election for the fourth consecutive time. Jagir Kaur, who re-joined the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, said that Sukhbir should have listened to the voices of dissent.
The leaders also decided to pay obeisance at the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, Akal Takht, in Amritsar on June 1 and apologise for the “mistakes” committed by party’s leadership over the years.
This is not the first time when party has challenged Sukhbir’s leadership. After party’s ‘below par’ show in 2017 polls, Dhindsa, who was secretary general then, had raised questions on SAD leadership and was shunted out of the party.
Sukhbir, who had called meeting of halqa in-charges in Chandigarh, termed the party leaders who met in Jalandhar as “frustrated politicians”. The SAD president urged them to learn from Maharashtra where the regional party Shiv Sena faced disintegration.
“The BJP broke regional party (Shiv Sena) but people rejected the dummy creation,” said Sukhbir, adding that he had clarified in party’s core committee meeting (the top decision-making body) before polls that he can’t have an “unprincipled alliance with the BJP”.
The Jalandhar West assembly byelection scheduled on July 10, and four more seats, Gidderbaha, Chabbewal, Barnala and Dera Baba Nanak, will go to the polls in the coming months.
In the June 1 Lok Sabha elections, of the 13 seats in Punjab that it contested, the SAD managed to win just one seat — Bathinda — which was retained by Sukhbir Badal’s wife Harsimrat. Its candidates lost security deposits on 10 seats, as the party got only 13.42% of the vote share, against 27.45% in 2019. The SAD’s former ally BJP got 18.52% vote share, up from 9.63% in 2019.