Newsmaker | An Akali breaks ranks: Decoding Manpreet Singh Ayali’s presidential poll abstention

Explaining his reasons in detail, the MLA said, “When the Centre has not solved any issue concerning Punjab — Punjab’s claim on Chandigarh, the SYL (Sutlej-Yamuna link canal) issue, Panjab University is being centralised, issue of Punjabi-speaking areas, the release of Sikh prisoners and many other issues. Hence, sometimes you have to listen to your ‘zameer (conscience)’.”

Ayali also expressed unhappiness with the SAD. “I am not opposed to the candidate (Murmu) but the matter is one of principles. Over the years, no issues concerning Punjab were solved by the BJP, even when it was in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal. Perhaps, it was the fault at the level of our party leadership. At the moment, we have only three seats in the Vidhan Sabha and the party definitely took many wrong decisions.”

Challenging Sukhbir Singh Badal and his family, the MLA called for a change in the party leadership. “After the poll debacle, a 13-member committee was formed under the leadership of former SAD minister Iqbal Singh Jhundan. He visited over 100 constituencies to take feedback. I feel the committee’s recommendations need to be implemented if we want the party to again stand on its feet. If some changes in leadership are brought, the party can be strengthened.”

The party lashed out at Ayali, with his fellow legislator Dr Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi, the MLA from Banga, saying, “Decision to support the NDA’s presidential candidate was a unanimous one. Such an act is like backstabbing the party at a time when it needs us the most. Ayali is a progressive leader and I feel that he shouldn’t have done this.”

Sukhi said the SAD decided to support Murmu as she is from a Scheduled Tribe community and the party always backs the minorities.

But the Dakha MLA Ayali refuted Sukhi’s remarks and claimed that he was not consulted on the party’s presidential poll strategy. “We heard the decision of the core committee straightaway. No advice was sought from the community we present. Our agenda is to serve and not to rule. The party needs to work as per the feelings of the Sikh community, the masses whom we represent. The Centre needs to give a commitment to Punjabis about resolving their issues if it wants to seek the support of the people of Punjab. I have no personal grudge against the candidate.”

Rise up the ranks

Ayali is the MLA from Dakha in Ludhiana district and belongs to a family of agriculturists. A Class 12 graduate, he dropped out of college after a year. He claims to have been a state-level basketball player and representing Punjab at the national level.

The MLA’s family has also long been involved in politics. His father Gurcharanjit Singh was the sarpanch of Ayali village for 15 years and his brother Harvir too served as the sarpanch. “I became the president of the agricultural society of the village in 1998 and later, the village sarpanch. I became an Akali worker then. In 2007, I won the Zila Parishad election and was eventually chosen as the chairperson of the Ludhiana Zila Parishad.”

The Akali leader remained in the post till 2012, when he successfully contested the Assembly poll from Dakha. He defeated the Congress’s Jasbir Singh Khangura by more than 16,000 votes. The following year, the Central government named the Ludhiana Zila Parishad the best Zila Parishad in the country. Ayali received the award from then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chaired a session of all Zila Parishad chairpersons in India. Since then, both the MLA and the party have often boasted of his honour bestowed upon the Zila Parishad.

In 2017, Ayali lost his seat to the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Harvinder Singh Phoolka but caught a break two years later after the AAP leader resigned “to protest against the inaction of Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in sacrilege cases”. Ayali regained the constituency in a bypoll by defeating then CM Amarinder Singh’s advisor Captain Sandeep Sandhu. He also weathered the AAP surge in the Assembly elections earlier this year, with Dakha being the only constituency in Ludhiana that the ruling party failed to win.

Wealth, power, and I-T raids

The SAD MLA’s rise to power was funded by the wealth he made as Ludhiana expanded and most of his family’s agricultural area came under newly designated urban areas. Ayali diversified into the real estate business and at the moment he has two high-end real estate projects in the works.

With rising wealth came increasing scrutiny, and on November 17 last year the Income-Tax Department raided his real estate offices and house and seized about Rs 4.3 crore. At the time, both Ayali and Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged that the raids were “political vendetta” by the Centre. According to Ayali’s poll affidavits, his assets in 2017 were approximately Rs 16.5 crore. It increased to Rs 24.39 crore in the 2019 Assembly by-poll while in 2022, he had assets worth Rs 29 crore.

But the SAD MLA still has the image of a rooted politician and is involved in farming in and near Ayali village. His popularity soared after he got several parks built in the area during his tenure in the Zila Parishad. Dakha is known for producing football players and these parks have come in handy for the youngsters, according to locals. The MLA is also known for his philanthropy.

On Monday, Ayali said voters in his area were satisfied with his stand to abstain from voting in the election. Some SAD leaders were also on the same page as him, he claimed.

The MLA also said that since the Congress was responsible for the attack on the Golden Temple and the 1984 riots, “there was no question of supporting the Congress candidate (joint Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha)”.