Why SAD reins are slipping from Sukhbir Badal's hands

A neatly tied Malwai-style dark-blue turban, grey free-flowing beard, and a mellowed down voice—Sukhbir Badal, chief of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), sure draws some resemblance to his late father and party patriarch Parkash Singh Badal. But more than the looks, what Sukhbir would wish for now is Parkash Badal’s political wisdom to be able to save the SAD in its hour of deep crisis.

For a rebellion is brewing in the SAD, intensified by its Lok Sabha election debacle. And this time, the rebels are gunning for Sukhbir’s head. They believe his inability to enthuse the panthic voters of Punjab and the emergence of radicals pushed the party to an electoral brink.

The first casualty of the turmoil has been the assembly bypoll contest for the Jalandhar West seat. The SAD’s district unit chief Kulwant Singh Mannan announced that the organisation no longer supports the official candidate Surjit Kaur and has instead decided to back Binder Kumar of the Bahujan Samaj Party. Reason: she was chosen by a panel comprising leaders Jagir Kaur, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Sukhwinder Sukhi and Mohinder Singh Kaypee. Jagir Kaur and Wadala are now among the rebels.

The SAD contested all 13 seats in the state and that of Chandigarh. Its candidates ended up losing deposits in 11 seats while the Chandigarh nominee, Hardeep Singh, crossed over to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) even before the filing of nominations. The lone seat the SAD won was the Badal family bastion of Bathinda, by Sukhbir’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal. In all, the Akali Dal could bag only 13.4 per cent of the popular vote, its worst electoral performance yet.

Since the 2017 assembly polls, SAD had been losing its panthic (rural religious Sikhs) vote base to the Simranjit Singh Mann faction of the Akali Dal, ruling AAP, and even the Congress—the party considered untouchable by panthics over the 1984 Operation Blue Star and anti-Sikh riots. In fact, in some seats, even the BJP managed to get panthic support.

A major jolt to the SAD in this Lok Sabha election came from radical elements, such as Independents Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa (Faridkot seat) and Amritpal Singh Sandhu (Khadoor Sahib). Sukhbir’s candidates lost deposits in both these panthic-dominated seats. Then, during the polls, he had to expel some of his party stalwarts, including brother-in-law Adesh Partap Singh Kairon and third generation Akali leader Ravinder Singh Kahlon. While Kahlon joined the BJP, Kairon is keeping his cards close to the chest and hasn’t joined the rebel Akali camp.

On June 25, key SAD leaders, including former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Jagir Kaur, former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra, and former ministers Parminder Dhindsa and Sikandar Singh Maluka, held deliberations for over four hours in Jalandhar and declared that they had asked Sukhbir to step down. This was preceded by Manpreet Singh Ayali, leader of the SAD in the Punjab legislative assembly, distancing himself from party activities and skipping meeting Sukbir. Ayali has long been pressing for a change of leadership.

Sukhbir loyalists have dubbed the rebels as “frustrated elements launched by the BJP” to weaken the Akali Dal while Balwinder Singh Bhunder, the no. 2 in SAD, has claimed that 99 per cent of members are with the Badals. Yet, it is more than clear to all that time and options are running out.

On June 26, Sukhbir convened a meeting of his loyalists, working group members and those in charge of assembly segments and claimed to have the support of most of them.

In the 2017 polls, the SAD’s vote share had slipped by 9.4 percentage points to 25.4 per cent while then ally BJP got 5.4 per cent of the votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the SAD’s vote share increased marginally to 27.8 per cent and the BJP’s to 9.6 per cent. The 2024 Lok Sabha polls have shown a rapid decline in the SAD’s fortunes. Even as Punjab gears up for local body elections, there is apprehension that rebels may further dent the party’s prospects. The biggest test for the Akali Dal will be the long-delayed SGPC polls, the dates for which are to be decided by the Union home ministry. The elections are delayed because of court proceedings.

In its 104-year-long history, the Akali Dal has survived several rebellions and splits to resurrect. In the 1960s, Akali stalwart Master Tara Singh faced a split and another legend Sant Fateh Singh split the party to launch the famous Punjabi Suba movement, gradually controlling the SGPC to become the real Akali Dal. In the late 1980s, Mann’s faction got more dominant among panthic voters but failed to control the SGPC. This allowed the Badal family, along with the other Akali leaders, to bounce back.

In 1999, the Akali Dal witnessed a vertical split after then SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra walked out questioning the alliance with the BJP. Earlier, the 1996 Moga convention saw most Akali factions, except for Mann’s, come together and declare that the party will work on secular credentials and not just for the welfare of Sikhs. All credit goes to Parkash Badal for keeping the radicals in check and expanding the space for moderates in the Akali Dal as well as panthic politics.

However, the situation is much graver for Sukhbir to handle, and for various reasons. First, he is not in power in Punjab or part of the ruling alliance at the Centre. Second, his party has a lone MP in the Lok Sabha and only three MLAs in the legislative assembly. Third, Sukhbir’s unpopularity among panthic voters threatens the party’s control over historic gurdwaras through the SGPC. Fourth, despite facing anti-incumbency, AAP is able to project itself as an alternative to the panthic voters. Fifth, the families of erstwhile militants—those killed or lodged in jails—are no longer backing the Akali Dal’s return to the radical agenda. Sixth, the SAD is seen as having done little to resolve legacy issues like transfer of Punjabi-speaking areas in Haryana to Punjab along with Chandigarh, nullification of the Satluj Yamuna Link canal project and release of convicted Sikh militants.

SAD rebels believe the radicals are once again capturing space and Sukhbir’s unpopularity isn’t helping in the efforts to revive the party. Lodged in Dibrugarh Jail, Amritpal Singh, who openly asked the youth to pick up guns and propagated separatism, won the Khadoor Sahib election by about 200,000 votes—the highest victory margin in Punjab in this election. On the other hand, Sarabjeet Khalsa had sought votes in Faridkot in the name of his father Beant Singh, the security officer who killed then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

The repercussion of this is that family members of other erstwhile terrorists are also planning to contest polls and take over the panthic political space. Sarabjit Khalsa is purportedly pushing a family member of Satwant Singh, another accomplice in Indira Gandhi’s assassination—to contest the forthcoming assembly bypolls.

Panthic voters believe Sukhbir, who took over the reins of the Akali Dal from his father in 2008, shifted the party’s focus from Sikh and regional issues, ran the party like a corporate entity, centralised power and gave election tickets to many of his businessmen friends, family members of encounter specialist police officers as well as Hindu leaders. They believe the SAD, while in power, didn’t take firm positions on several ideological issues, such as the abrogation of Article 370 to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The albatross around Sukhbir’s neck are three big allegations: when Akali Dal was in power, controversial officer Sumedh Saini was appointed director general of police; no credible action was taken against those involved in the 2015 sacrilege incidents and the subsequent police firing on protesters; the alleged involvement of some Akali Dal leaders in narcotics trade.

It’s not that Sukhbir didn’t try to reform the party. In July 2022, he dissolved the SAD’s entire organisational structure in line with the recommendations of the Iqbal Singh Jhundan committee that had reviewed the SAD’s performance in the assembly elections the same year. Just before this Lok Sabha election, he reconstituted the SAD’s political affairs committee and inducted 145 members. He also brought many Akali leaders back into the party, such as Jagir Kaur and Sukhdev Dhindsa.

However, the revamp never reached the top party echelons. In the past, the rebels have often nudged Sukhbir to step aside and constitute a five-member presidium to take charge of the party. They believe a leadership change will not only enthuse the cadre but also encourage several deserting leaders to return to the party fold. The rebels believe Sukhbir must make the ultimate sacrifice to prevent the aggressive BJP and ruling AAP from further eating into whatever remains of the SAD base in Punjab. The question is: will he?

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