Infighting in Akali Dal: We stand like rock with Sukhbir Badal, asking rebel SAD leaders to talk while in party – Sekhon
HARISH MONGA
Ferozepur, July 6, 2027: Former Minister, Janmeja Singh Sekhon in a press meeting on Friday evening -while having a gathering of local SAD leaders and workers - said, we stand with Sukhbir Singh Badal like a rock, whose family given sacrifices for the party and asked rebel SAD leaders to talk while in the party.
Added here, after ruling Punjab for 10 years in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), SAD reduced to a mere 15 seats in the 117-member state assembly during the 2017 state polls. Five years later in the 2022 state polls, it had a mere three MLAs in the state assembly. In parliamentary polls, it won two out of 13 seats in Punjab getting a decent 27% vote share during the 2019 general elections. This time, it not only clocked its worst-ever 13% vote share, but as many as 10 of its 13 Lok Sabha candidates lost their security deposits. Now a group of senior party leaders during their meeting held in Jalandhar on June 25 openly called for the ousting of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal as they blamed his leadership for the party’s continuous drubbing in elections. With further deterioration in Lok Sabha elections, which was much worse than previous defeats, the few party leaders have grown to oust Badals, who have been controlling the party since the 1990s.
A group of rebel Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders - Senior party leader and former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra, former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur among other leaders, had also appeared at Akal Takht Sahib ( the highest Sikh temporal seat for Sikhs) seeking apology for series of incidents that led inhabitants of Punjab annoyed with the party when it was in power in Punjab from 2007 to 2017. They had expressed their resentment over the working of the SAD government but they remained a mute spectator to stop the leadership’s wrong decisions. However, they urged Jathedar Ajal Takht for forgiveness in writing for all such mistakes as they were the part of Akali Government besides saying that they all were willing to accept any punishment awarded by Akal Takht.
The ongoing revolt in Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) over the leadership of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal is likely to cast a shadow on the Dalit-dominated Jalandhar West (reserve) bypoll, which is scheduled for July 10. The votes will be counted on July 13.
The four mistakes they listed are the Revocation of the case registered against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for the blasphemous act of imitating Guru Gobind Singh in 2007; failure to punish perpetrators of the Bargari sacrilege and police officials for the Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing incidents; allowing the appointment of controversial IPS officer Sumedh Singh Saini as the Punjab DGP besides giving the wife of controversial police officer Izhar Alam the party ticket in the assembly elections and appointing her chief parliamentary secretary; and lastly, failing to deliver justice to the victims in fake encounter cases.
Earlier, Harsimrat Badal had also said that only five leaders are working against the party’s interests as per the game plan of the BJP. The BJP wants to re-enact a breakaway in the SAD as it did in Maharashtra. It will not succeed.
Sekhon said, the party has ruled for 15 years and ups and downs are in every party. Some parties are working behind these radicals. It is the policy of the Centre government run by BJP, to vanish the regional parties while there is not even a single radical in our district. Even we are ready to appear before the Akal Takht on naked foot. But appearing radicals, without discussing within the party, is not appreciable.
“Through media, we appeal to the rebel leaders that since their frequent actions are not in favour of the party. One can discuss while in the party but talking against the party is not acceptable to us as the Akali Dal party and the crisis could further weaken the party in the state it once fought for and ruled to protect its identity. In case they had any suggestion to uplift the party, and then put up the same while in the party”, said Sekhon.