Shiromani Akali Dal not to contest bypolls in Punjab

The decision was taken at the party’s working committee meeting convened by SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder

The decision was taken at the party’s working committee meeting convened by SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder. (File)

Written by: Raakhi Jagga

2 min readLudhianaOct 25, 2024 02:13 AM IST First published on: Oct 24, 2024 at 04:07 PM IST

The Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Thursday announced that it would not contest the bypolls to four Assembly seats in Punjab slated to be held next month.

The decision was taken at the party’s working committee meeting convened by SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder.

Daljeet Singh Cheema, Spokesperson, SAD, told media persons, “After Akal Takht Sahib Jathedar yesterday (Wednesday) said that Sukhbir Singh Badal cannot take part in any political activity till he completes tankha (punishment) we decided to not contest the polls.”

Notably, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was declared a tankhaiya (a person guilty of violating Sikh religious code of conduct) on August 30 by the Akal Takht for ‘mistakes’ committed during the SAD-BJP rule from 2007-2017. The Jathedar had also stated that a meeting in connection to Sukhbir Singh Badal’s tankha would be called after Diwali.