Sukhbir Singh Badal resigned as the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday and submitted his resignation to the party’s working committee. The move comes more than two months after the Akal Takht Sahib declared the 62-year-old ‘tankhaiya’ or guilty of violating the Sikh religious code of conduct on August 30.
Confirming the development, SAD spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema said in a post on X, “SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal submitted his resignation to the working committee of the party today to pave the way for the election of the new president. He thanked all the party leaders & workers for expressing confidence in his leadership and extending wholehearted support & cooperation throughout the tenure.”
Sukhbir had made Balwinder Singh Bhunder the working president of the party on August 29.
Former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had made Sukhbir the party president in January 2008. Voices against Sukhbir were raised from within the party from October 2015 after the sacrilege and Guru Granth Sahib theft incidents. Rebels in the party spoke out against Sukhbir after the party’s dismal performance in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls.
In July this year, a splinter group of the Akali Dal named the Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar was formed under the leadership of Gurpartap Singh Wadala. Senior SAD leaders who are part of the Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar have been demanding Sukhbir’s resignation for long.
It was on August 30 that the Akal Takht declared Sukhbir ‘tankhaiya’ for the “mistakes” made by him as deputy chief minister and party chief from 2007 to 2017 and the decisions he took that “deeply harmed the image of the Panth and caused damage to Sikh interests”. Since then, Sukhbir has been politically inactive.
In October, when he participated in two dharnas against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government alleging that the ruling party was not allowing candidates to file nomination papers for panchayat polls, Sudhar Lehar leaders objected to the development. Later, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh also clarified that Sukhbir was not allowed to participate in any political activity till his ‘tankhaiya’ status persisted. However, the Akal Takht Jathedar is yet to announce the ‘tankha’ or the punishment for violating the Sikh religious code.
Sukhbir started his political journey in 1996 after getting elected as an MP from Faridkot. He lost the seat in 1999 and went to Parliament as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2001 where he was sworn in as Union minister under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2004, Sukhbir won the Faridkot Lok Sabha seat again. In August 2009, he entered state politics by winning the Jalalabad bypoll and remained as deputy chief minister of Punjab from August 2009 to March 2017. During his tenure as SAD president, the SAD-BJP alliance won the 2012 elections.
However, the party’s graph dipped after the 2017 Assembly elections. SAD is not contesting bypolls in the four Assembly constituencies in Punjab on November 20.
