Chandigarh: Parminder Singh Dhindsa quits as SAD legislative party leader

Parminder’s resignation comes less than a month after he and his father skipped an event where Sukhbir was re-elected SAD chief for the third time.

2 min readChandigarhJan 4, 2020 01:37 AM IST First published on: Jan 4, 2020 at 01:37 AM IST

Parminder Singh Dhindsa on Friday resigned as leader of the SAD legislature party in Punjab Vidhan Sabha. (Gurmeet Singh)

DAYS AFTER after his father and Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa rebelled against the SAD leadership, Lehragaga MLA and former finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa on Friday resigned as leader of the SAD legislature party in Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal accepted the resignation.

Explained

Grouse against ‘family rule’

The move deals another blow to the SAD president, whose leadership has been questioned by senior Dhindsa and the trio of Ranjit Singh Brahampura, Sewa Singh Sekhwan and Rattan Singh Ajnala, who have formed a political outfit called SAD (Taksali). Their main grouse is that SAD has been reduced to “a party ruled by a family”.

Parminder’s resignation comes less than a month after he and his father skipped an event where Sukhbir was re-elected SAD chief for the third time. Sukhdev had instead attended a parallel event in Amritsar on December 14 to observe the 99th foundation day of the party, but Parminder did not attend that either.

Former Cabinet minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon was named the new leader of SAD legislature party.

While Parminder was not available for comment, Sukhdev said, “I welcome it. The strange thing is that the resignation was not discussed in the legislature party and accepted. This is the dictatorship we have been protesting against.”