Sulking after son passed over for ticket, Sangrur ex-MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa questions Badal’s choices

“Sukhbir Badal often says he wants to be the chief minister of Punjab. But how can he become the CM if he will not be able to ensure the party wins Lok Sabha seats? He needs to field strong candidates. I conveyed this to him as well. However, he told me that the decision to field Jhundan had been made much before,” Dhindsa said while talking to The Indian Express.

Asked what he would do next, Dhindsa said, “I will ask the workers associated with us what to do next as ultimately they are the ones who have to do the groundwork. I have called a meeting of our workers on April 20 at Sangrur and will take a call after feedback from them.”

“Parminder was already active in the area and after the ticket announcement, voters are talking more about him,” he added.

Punjab will vote on June 1 in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

It was on March 5 that Dhindsa merged his SAD (Sanyukt) with the party led by Badal, who visited the former’s Chandigarh home on the occasion. The SAD president then called it a historic day.

“Our senior leader Dhindsaji is back in the party fold with his entire team. My father Parkash Singh Badal served the Akali Dal for more than 70 years and Dhindsaji and many others were in his team. Now, Dhindsa-ji is the most senior leader. I urge him to play the role of the patron of the party like Badal Saab. Some differences had separated us, but now the two families are together. The Akali Dal has to be strengthened if we are to save Punjab,” Badal had said.

Bibi Jagir Kaur supports Dhindsa and son

Soon after the announcement on April 13, senior SAD leader Bibi Jagir Kaur, who returned to the party a few days after Dhindsa, expressed displeasure over Parminder being ignored. She said the leadership should not have broken the trust of those who had returned to the party. Interestingly, she also gave best wishes to her political rival Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who is the Congress candidate in Sangrur.

Meanwhile, Iqbal Singh Jhundan, a former two-term MLA, is busy campaigning in the constituency. “I am attending party meetings these days and will go to villages after a few days. I will meet Dhindsa-ji and I am sure he will support me,” he told The Indian Express.

Sources said that Jhundan had as the head of a committee set up in 2022 to find out reasons for the SAD’s poor election performance even questioned Badal’s leadership.

Who is Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa?

Dhindsa, who got the Padma Bhushan in 2019, started his political career in 1972 by winning the Assembly polls as an independent from Dhanaula. He then joined the SAD despite the Congress forming a government in Punjab.

In 1977 he won the Sunam Assembly seat and went on to become the transport minister.

Dhindsa successfully contested the Assembly elections in 1980 and 1986 from Sangrur and Sunam, respectively. In 1997 he lost the polls but was still given the cabinet rank in the SAD government. He contested the Lok Sabha polls from Sangrur in 1989, 2004, 2009 and 2014 but won only once, in 2004.

However, Dhindsa was elected to the Rajya Sabha thrice, in 1998, 2010 and 2016. He also served as Union minister for sports and chemicals from 2000 to 2004 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

When SAD (Sanyukt) was floated

In September 2018, Dhindsa, who has also been a member of the Rajya Sabha, resigned from all posts of the SAD owing to differences with the party’s leadership over the sacrilege issue and poor performance in the 2017 Assembly elections. He also questioned Badal’s leadership.

In February 2020 Dhindsa and his son Parminder were expelled from the SAD, and they formed SAD (Sanyukt) along with other disgruntled leaders in July 2020. The SAD (Sanyukt), however, performed dismally when it contested the 2022 elections in alliance with the BJP.

Parminder, 50, was an MLA for five consecutive terms. He won as an SAD candidate from Sunam in 2000, 2002, 2007 and 2012. In 2017 he won from the Lehragaga constituency of Sangrur district. He was public works minister from 2007-2012 and finance minister from 2012-2017.

In 2019 he was the SAD candidate for the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat but finished third as Bhagwant Mann defeated the Congress’s Kewal Dhillon.

While the AAP, Congress, SAD and the SAD (Amritsar) have declared candidates for Sangrur, the BJP is yet to announce its nominee.