Sukhbir Badal-led Akali Dali's control over SGPC weakens after Sangrur rout

The Sukhbir Badal-led Shiromani-Akali Dal(B)’s leadership position in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the Sikh community’s elected religious body, has become shaky after its humiliating defeat in the recent Sangrur parliamentary constituency bypoll.

The rumblings of dissent have already begun, as the SGPC’s general secretary Karnail Singh Panjoli has demanded that the SAD(B), which controls the organisation should submit its resignation to the Akal Takht. The Sangrur results has reflected “people’s distrust in the present Akali leadership”, he said, according to a report in a national daily.

In the Sangrur bypoll, the SAD(B)’s candidate Kamaldeep Kaur, the sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is in jail for his role in ex-CM Beant Singh’s assassination, was badly defeated. She finished fifth and lost her deposit. Though, SAD(B) went to the polls using the release of Bandi Singhs (Sikh prisoners) languishing in various jails for many years as their electoral pitch, they lost the election.

But, what was worse is that the SAD (B) lost to another Akali Dal faction, (not the ruling AAP or the Congress) led by the 77-year-old pro-Khalistan leader and ex-IPS officer Simranjit Singh Mann. Mann had won the seat, the home turf of the current CM Bhagwant Mann, ironically, campaigning on the same Panthic plank.

The SAD(B)’s fortunes have been the decline for some time now. Though, after Sukhbir Singh Badal took over from his father on January 31, 2008, the party went on to form the government for the consecutive second term in 2012 along with the then ally BJP, the political slide thereafter has been rapid.

Also read: Big setback for AAP in Punjab as party loses Sangrur seat held by Bhagwant Mann earlier

The party bagged four parliamentary seats out of the state’s 13 in the 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha polls and in the 2019 general elections, only Sukhbir and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal managed to win.  In the recent assembly election this year, SAD (B) mustered up a tally of three seats.

The party leadership formed a 12-member sub-committee to take stock and come up with measures to strengthen the party. The report found, according to Indian Express, that some of the issues that have upset the Sikh community and left an imprint on their psyche are the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib that took place in Bargari town of district Faridkot in 2015 followed by the death of two Sikhs in police firing in Behbal Kalan in the same district. This happened when the SAD (B) government was in power.

SAD alliance with Dera Sacha Sauda in the 2017 Assembly elections, also hurt the party. The SAD-BJP alliance also led to allegations that RSS was interfering in Sikh affairs. Dynasty politics and religious conversions were other factors that played on the mind of the Sikhs in Punjab.

The panel has in fact suggested that the SAD (B) leadership, which includes Prakash Singh Badal and his whole cabinet at that time, and Sukhbir Singh Badal should all apologise to the Almighty and the Sikh masses who are angry with them. But the SAD (B) leadership has not acted upon the suggestions made by the panel.

However, the SAD (A) victory now, which is all set to weaken the SAD (B)’s control over the SGPC, will probably compel Sukhbir to take action and make changes within the party. Moreover, if the SGPC elections, which are also due are held soon, the prospects of the SAD(A) or other Akali factions replacing SAD (B) seem bright.