Chandigarh: Sukhbir Singh Badal was unanimously re-elected Saturday as the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), marking the Badal scion’s return in challenging times for the Punjab-based party that is beset with internal fights.
Badal had resigned from the party’s headship in January, a month after the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, “ordered” his removal as president. Balwinder Singh Bhunder was functioning as the SAD working president in this short period.
The party’s official handle on ‘X’ announced the development following a meeting of senior Akali leaders and delegates in Amritsar. Badal’s name was proposed and agreed upon by over 500 delegates of the party. The general house meeting of the delegates was held at the historic Teja Singh Samundri Hall in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar.
The delegates were chosen from among the newly recruited 27 lakh members of the party. After Badal had resigned in January, the SAD working committee had announced that a fresh recruitment drive would be undertaken and a new president chosen.
Badal’s re-election comes at a time when a parallel drive is on to recruit fresh members to the Akali Dal by a committee constituted by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs.
The decision to form the committee was announced by the Akal Takht as part of a series of religious punishments doled out to Badal and other leaders of the Akali Dal on December 2. The committee was tasked with starting a fresh membership drive and overseeing the election of a new party president and executive committee.
The working committee of the Akali Dal tried to reason with the then Akal Takht jathedar Raghbir Singh about its inability to hand over the functioning of the party to a committee constituted by the Akal Takht on the grounds that the move will lead to the possibility of the party being deregistered by the Election Commission for working on religious orders.
However, expelled jathedars Raghbir Singh and Harpreet Singh insisted on the committee being constituted. The two also launched a campaign against Badal, openly supporting the break away faction.
Deviating from the Akal Takht’s orders, the SAD working committee launched a fresh recruitment drive in January. The breakaway faction and its supporters launched a parallel recruitment drive last month under the guidance of the panel constituted by the Akal Takht.
Iqbal Singh Jhunda, a senior Akali leader supporting the breakaway faction, told media persons Tuesday that the membership drive of the party as ordained by the Akal Takht that began in the last week of March is continuing. “We are not here to divide the party or its leadership. We are only following the orders of the Akal Takht,” Jhunda said.
Bibi Jagir Kaur, a leader of the breakaway faction, told the media that the election of Badal as president held no value as the real recruitment drive as ordered by the Akal Takht was still underway. “The Akal Takht had given 6 months for the membership drive. Once that is over, a new President will be elected,” she said.
Badal, son of the late Parkash Singh Badal, a five-time chief minister, had earlier served as the Akali Dal president from 2008 to January, 2025.
“The Akali Dal is the real waris (torchbearer) of Punjab,” Badal said in his speech after being announced president, taking a dig at the creation of Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) by Khadoor Sahib MP and Khalistan activist Amritpal Singh. “Our party has always worked for peace and mutual brotherhood in the state. We believe in sacrificing our lives for the country. Punjabis have always been at the forefront of protecting the nation from enemy attacks.”
ਸ. ਸੁਖਬੀਰ ਸਿੰਘ ਬਾਦਲ ਨੇ ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਅਕਾਲੀ ਦਲ ਦੇ ਪ੍ਰਧਾਨ ਵਜੋਂ ਸੇਵਾ ਸੰਭਾਲਣ ਉਪਰੰਤ ਅਕਾਲੀ ਵਰਕਰਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਚੜ੍ਹਦੀਕਲਾ ਨਾਲ ਪੰਥ ਅਤੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੀ ਸੇਵਾ ਕਰਨ ਦਾ ਸੁਨੇਹਾ ਦਿੱਤਾ । ਉਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੇ ਇਤਿਹਾਸ ਬਾਰੇ ਦੱਸਦਿਆਂ ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਅਕਾਲੀ ਦਲ ਦੇ ਪੰਥ ਅਤੇ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦੇ ਹਿੱਤਾਂ ਲਈ ਮੋਰਚੇ ਲਾ ਕੇ ਲੜੀਆਂ ਲੜਾਈਆਂ ਦਾ ਜ਼ਿਕਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਅਤੇ ਭਰੋਸਾ… pic.twitter.com/dGBhpH4c22
— Shiromani Akali Dal (@Akali_Dal_) April 12, 2025
“Punjab is our state…our home.. and as a regional party and as its head, it is my responsibility to ensure that its existence is not threatened. Persons of every religion will live together in complete peace and harmony and like we did when we were in power the focus should be on economic development and progress,” he added.
The BJP at the centre, he said, has tried its best to annihilate the SAD.
“As long as we were a part of the NDA, the BJP was tolerating us. Once we broke our ties with them over the farmers issue, they decided to finish us in every possible way in Punjab. They went to the extent of capturing the Akal Takht through our jathedars who are otherwise persons of truth and morality,” Badal said, referring to the manner in which the jathedars, Giani Raghbir Singh and Giani Harpreet Singh, had launched a campaign against him.
Badal also asked all the members of the breakaway faction of his party to return to the parent party and strengthen it.
Acting on a complaint given by a group of SAD dissenters, the Akal Takht led by Raghbir Singh had on 30 August last year declared Badal a “tankhaiya” (a sinner, guilty of religious misconduct). The takht had found Badal guilty of taking decisions that led to “severe depletion of the image of the Sikh community, deterioration of the condition of the Shiromani Akali Dal and damaging Sikh interests”.
According to the Akal Takht, these decisions were taken by Badal in his capacity as deputy chief minister of Punjab and SAD president. On 2 December, the Akal Takht announced a religious punishment for Badal and other Akali leaders, including those in the breakaway camp. The Akal Takht also asked the SAD working committee to accept the resignations submitted by various Akali leaders). This virtually meant the Akal Takht ordered Badal’s removal as SAD chief.
Badal survived an assassination attempt during the course of his “religious” punishment at the Golden Temple premises in Amritsar, after which the party sought additional time to abide by the other “political” orders.
Reacting to Badal’s re-election, Takht Damdama Sahib’s former Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh alleged that the SAD presidential election was held in the “most undemocratic manner because first Badal chose the delegates and then the delegates chose Badal.”
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring mocked the re-election of Badal. “When did he resign?” Warring said at a press conference in Chandigarh.
The PCC president observed that Sukhbir had taken only a “sabbatical” for his family engagements and was very much calling the shots in the party even when he had supposedly resigned, which he actually never did. He alleged that Sukhbir had not followed the instructions of the Akal Takht, which had given clear orders for his removal as the SAD president.
The SAD was created in 1920 during the gurdwara reform movement, a protest movement undertaken by the Sikhs to take over gurdwaras from the private control of mahants. The elder Badal had become the SAD president in 1995 and the party’s presidency has since remained with the Badal family.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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