Sukhbir Singh Badal rejected by people … he must resign as Akali president: expelled SAD patron Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa

"We are contacting Akali leaders across the board ... we will choose a new party president from among the delegates," says Dhindsa

he 88-year-old Akali stalwart has been the party MP or MLA multiple times. AKALI DAL

The 88-year-old Akali stalwart, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, has been the party MP or MLA multiple times.

5 min readLudhianaAug 2, 2024 03:19 PM IST First published on: Aug 2, 2024 at 07:19 AM IST

A day after the Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) patron and ex-Union minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa rejected the expulsion of eight rebel leaders and took on party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, the SAD’s leadership on Thursday expelled Dhindsa from its primary membership for “anti-party activities”. The 88-year-old Akali stalwart has been the party MP or MLA multiple times. In an interview with The Indian Express, Dhindsa speaks on various aspects of the crisis gripping the Akali Dal, including the dissident leaders’ action plan. Excerpts:

You declared the eight rebel leaders’ expulsion by the SAD disciplinary committee “null and void”, but the party says you have no authority to change its decision. What is your response?

They expelled eight senior leaders including Bibi Jagir Kaur, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Surinder Singh Thekedar, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Charanjit Singh Brar, Sikander Singh Maluka, Surjit Singh Rakhra and Prem Singh Chandumajra. Interestingly, they expelled my son Parminder on July 30, and after I raised my voice, they announced my expulsion too.

They made me the SAD patron in March this year after I merged my party SAD (Sanyukt) with it. They are saying that I can’t declare the expulsion move “null and void”, but I can tell them that they didn’t follow the proper procedure to expel the leaders. I have worked in the party for several decades, hence I am saying that the disciplinary committee can only recommend the expulsion of any leader – the final decision in this regard has to be taken by the party’s working committee. No party meeting was called, and the leaders were not even questioned even once before expelling them. So, I stand by my position that they didn’t follow the proper procedure to expel the leaders, which is why it is null and void.

But now they expelled you as well?

How many persons can they expel? Anyone who tells them party flaws gets expelled. Even in my case, they didn’t serve me any notice and straight away disciplinary committee makes an announcement. I just laugh at their thought process. I am a born Akali and will remain so. Let the delegates meet be organised, things will become clearer in the coming days.

When are you planning to hold this meeting of Akali delegates?

We are contacting Akali leaders across the board. Hence, in a few days, a meeting will be called and we will choose a new party president from among the delegates. Afterwards, we will go to the Election Commission (EC) to inform them that our president has been changed.

Many Akali splinter groups had been formed in the past, and you had also floated the SAD (Sanyukt), but none of them has proved successful so far. Why do you think the new one would not meet the same fate?

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This one will not be called a splinter group, but the main party itself as a majority of its leaders will be coming to our side. This time the situation is different. Now, Sukhbir Singh Badal himself understands that people are not accepting his leadership anymore. So he must step down as SAD president. The repeated public mandates in 2017, 2019, 2022, and now 2024 polls are enough proof of this rejection as Akali Dal’s graph has been going down in every poll amid a shrinking vote share.

What went wrong when you had floated SAD( Sanyukt) that you had to merge it with SAD(Badal)?

In 2018, I resigned from all posts of SAD and formed SAD(Sanyukt) in July 2020, but failed to connect with SAD workers and supporters due to which we didn’t get desired results, although I had been pointing out for a long time that a leadership change was needed in the party. We contested the 2022 Assembly polls as well but didn’t get success. So we merged our party with SAD (ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls) thinking that Akali Dal will be implementing the needed reforms. But, strangely, they are expelling the leaders who are running a “Sudhar Lehar (reform movement)”.

SAD(Sanyukt) had contested the 2022 polls in alliance with the BJP. So, is there any chance of a tie-up with the BJP again?

At present, the SAD’s revival is the only priority. Alliance is not on the cards as of now. The new structure of the party will be set up soon and we will contest SGPC polls afterwards. With the political wing head of the Dera Sacha Sauda disclosing that Sukhbir had met Dera chief Ram Rahim in violation of the order from the Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Sukhbir no longer has the right to continue as the SAD president. Sukhbir continues to be the party president against the wishes of party workers and the majority of the Sikh community. He has lost the trust of the party and the public. The party has become leaderless, and we need to save this 103-year-old regional party built by immense sacrifices of our forefathers.