Amid membership row, cracks widen as SAD announces organisational polls from April 2
Rebel camp terms it defiance of Akal Takht directive; says elections cannot be held before completion of membership drive
Chandigarh : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) parliamentary board on Saturday decided to hold organisational polls of the party from April 2, and in first phase, district and state delegates will be elected by April 6.
The decision — which is being seen as a clear defiance to the Akal Takht decree that had tasked a panel to carry out the party’s recruitment drive and elect new office-bearers within six months — was taken under the leadership of SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar.
The Akal Takht panel has already initiated the membership drive on March 18 in compliance with the December 2 ‘hukamnama’, aimed at reorganising and reviving the SAD.
In its December 2 decree, the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, awarded ‘tankhah’ (religious punishment) to former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and other SAD leaders for mistakes committed by the party and its government from 2007-2017 on the complaint of rebel party leaders, and directed the SAD working committee to accept Sukhbir’s resignation as SAD president besides constituting a seven-member committee to initiate a recruitment drive and elect new office-bearers in six months.
However, the Sukhbir faction initiated a recruitment drive under a SAD working committee, citing legalities. It was termed as a violation of the decree. The panel faced a setback after its coordinator Harjinder Singh Dhami and member Kirpal Singh Badungar quit. However, then Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh issued a fresh direction to the Takht panel to initiate the drive in February with the five-member panel.
Giving details of the organisational polls, SAD senior leader Harpal Singh Cheema said: “After the election of district and state delegates, the meeting to elect new president of SAD will be held. He said the party has already enrolled 24-lakh workers and number will increase as many lists are yet to be submitted to the head office.
On defiance of Akal Takht’s directive as alleged by the rival faction, Cheema said: “The enrolment of workers has been done and we have made several appeals to the other faction to join the process, but to no avail. Akal Takht has given direction to a committee to oversee the process of enrolment, in which they failed. Now, the process is completed and the delegates will elect the new president,” Cheema said, rejecting the claims of rivals.
Member of the five-member committee Manpreet Singh Ayali and senior leaders who are critical of Sukhbir’s leadership, have opted to stick with their plan to focus on the enrolment of new workers. They believe that the future of the party lies in expanding its base and ensuring that young members are integrated into the party.
“The election announced by Bhundar is in clear defiance of the Akal Takht directive. The five-member committee is enrolling members and this process will continue till June 30. Organisational elections cannot be held before that,” said Charanjit Singh Brar, a member of the rival faction. “It is the drive launched by the Sukhbir faction to elect him as the president. The party has nothing to do with this. People are showing a lot of enthusiasm in the membership drive initiated by the five-member committee, which shows that the SAD workers are going with the directive of the Akal Takht and not of the Sukhbir-led faction,” said Brar.
