Chandigarh, 16 January 2025- Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Punjab’s oldest regional party, has been struggling to organize itself amid an unprecedented crisis. The party is currently preparing to launch a month-long membership drive on January 20. This will be followed by organizational polls at different levels, which will conclude on March 1 with the election of the party president.
Sukhbir Singh Badal, the SAD’s longest-serving president, resigned from office on November 16 of last year, but the party working committee didn’t accept his resignation until January 10 at the request of the Akal Takht.
Another issue is that Sukhbir continues to be the Akali Dal’s “poster boy,” as demonstrated during the party’s January Maghi Mela conference in Sri Muktsar Sahib.
On the same day, at a different venue in Muktsar, the supporters of jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh and Faridkot MP Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa launched a new party called Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De).
Speaking at the event, Khalsa stated, “A new party has been launched because Akali Dal has strayed from its path. There wouldn’t have been a need to launch a new party if Akali Dal had been serving the panth (community). It was only carried out in response to public demand.
Formation of Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) can bring noteworthy changes in Punjab politics
As Independent candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Amritpal, a radical preacher, and Khalsa, the son of one of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassins, both achieved remarkable victories from their respective constituencies. Despite being imprisoned in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail after being charged under the National Security Act in March of last year, Amritpal won by more than 1.97 lakh votes.
“Everyone has the right to float a political party in a democracy, so let them (Amritpal and Khalsa) do it,” said SAD general secretary Daljeet Singh Cheema, putting on a brave front.
In addition, some SAD leaders noted that although numerous smaller groups had split off from it, “the 104-year-old party still remains on the centerstage of Punjab politics.”
In addition to serving as deputy chief minister in the SAD-BJP coalition government from 2007 to 2017, which was headed by his late father Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir had been the party president for 16 years.
Sukhbir is expected to make an attempt to reclaim the party’s leadership position in spite of the uncertainty surrounding his future. Sukhbir’s dominance at the SAD’s Muktsar conclave, where all of the speakers praised him for his “development works” as the deputy chief minister at that point, served as evidence of this. Kanwarjit Singh Rozy Barkandi, a former SAD MLA, even referred to him as the “party’s CM face in the 2027 polls.”
Without specifically naming the Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), Sukhbir accused the group of trying to push the state backwards, particularly the youth. “Our competitors’ goal is straightforward…to try to complete Badals and SAD. We all need to get united to strengthen the SAD in order to save Punjab,” he stated.
After losing to the Congress in the 2017 Assembly elections, the SAD’s electoral fortunes continued to deteriorate. In 2022, when the AAP won 92 of 117 seats in the Assembly, compared to the Congress’s 18; the SAD, running alone after splitting from the BJP, was only able to win three seats; in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the SAD received just one seat, compared to the Congress’s seven and the AAP’s three.
CM Bhagwant Mann, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said: “Everyone has the right to float a political party, my best wishes to Amritpal and his supporters. Punjab’s land is very fertile, you can sow anything but not the seeds of hatred – attempts to polarize people failed in the past too.”
“Only time will tell what challenge the new party can present to us,” SAD’s Daljeet Singh Cheema told The Indian Express. “Let’s examine their plan. Although there have been numerous splinter groups in the past, everyone is aware of the Akali Dal’s lengthy history,” Cheema continued.
“The Amritpal party’s first message was to boycott Shiromani Akali Dal,” BJP leader Harjeet Singh Grewal told The Indian Express. “The state cannot benefit from any party that was founded with the intention of opposing someone. We anticipate that the new organization will promote communal harmony and act in the interests of the country,” BJP leader continued.
