Breakaway SAD factions merge in Punjab, bring bad news for Badals & ruling Congress
Politics

Breakaway SAD factions merge in Punjab, bring bad news for Badals & ruling Congress

The two factions — SAD (Democratic) led by RS member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and SAD (Taksali) led by ex-MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura — will contest 2022 Punjab polls.

   
SAD (Democratic) chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (front row, second from left) and SAD (Taksali) head Ranjit Singh Brahmpura (beside Dhindsa and in blue turban) along with other leaders of the breakaway factions | By special arrangement

SAD (Democratic) chief Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (front row, second from left) and SAD (Taksali) head Ranjit Singh Brahmpura (beside Dhindsa and in blue turban) along with other leaders of the breakaway factions | By special arrangement

Chandigarh: Two prominent factions of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab have come together to form a political party that will contest the 2022 assembly elections in the state. 

The two — SAD (Democratic) led by Rajya Sabha member Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and SAD (Taksali) led by former MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura — Monday decided to merge their individual groups and form a new party. 

“The new party will be called Shiromani Akali Dal with a common tag that is yet to be decided,” Dhindsa said, while announcing the merger at a press conference here this afternoon.

“The proposed party aims to bring all like minded individuals together to fight elections on issues related to the Sikh panth and farmer interests,” he added. 

The 83-year-old Brahmpura will be the patron of the new party while Dhindsa would be the president. A six-member Ekta Committee, with three members each from the two groups, has brought them together.

Brahmpura considered among the old guard of the SAD had broken away in 2018, objecting to the manner in which Sukhbir Singh Badal was handling the party. 

“The SAD had a glorious history and has been led by men of remarkable reputation,” Brahmpura said at Monday’s presser. “It is only after Sukhbir took over that his reputation, being mired in all sorts of mafia, brought a bad name to SAD.” 

Dhindsa, disgruntled over being ignored, quit the party last year. He was followed by his MLA son Parminder who was then the head of the SAD legislative party in the assembly. 


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New group could hurt SAD 

The coming together of the two breakaway factions of the Akali Dal is significant on several counts. 

First, it spells bad news for SAD. The breakaway factions are led by senior Akali leaders whose coming together strengthens the anti-SAD forces in the state. 

Brahmpura who was elected as the MP from Khadoor Sahib in 2014 is a strong Taksali (old guard) leader of Majha, a district along the Pakistan border. Similarly Dhindsa along with his son Parminder have their family pocket borough in Sangrur in Malwa. 

Both Dhindsa and Brahmpura are seen as Akali leaders who gave up senior positions in the party over emotive panthic issues such as the mishandling of the desecration issue by the Badals. 

“We both have the same stand on all issues. Whether it is Bargari (desecration of Guru Granth Sahib) or the control of the Badals over the Akali Dal and the Shiromani committee (Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee),” Dhindsa said. “We have both given up positions of power in the party and took a principled stand on these issues.”

The common platform created by the two is also likely to snowball into a larger all encompassing body that will bring in a whole lot of rebellious leaders from other parties. 

“We will approach Sukhpal Singh Khaira to join us with his Punjab Ekta Party, the Bains brothers (two MLAs of the Lok Insaaf Party in the Punjab assembly), Sucha Singh Chhotepur (former state AAP president) and Dharamvira Gandhi (former AAP MP),” said Karnail Singh Peer Mohammad, president of the All India Sikh Students Federation, who is among the prominent members of the joint front.

“In case the new front is able to coalesce all the splinter panthic and non-panthic rebel groups in Punjab, it can emerge as an effective fourth power group in the state,” said Dr Kanwalpreet Kaur, a Chandigarh-based political scientist.

“But the likelihood of them winning solo is not much, as of today. The hold of traditional political parties in Punjab is just too strong to be broken overnight.” 


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Combine could put Congress in a spot

For the ruling Congress, having a strong panthic front to contend with will rob it of one of its main political issues against the Akalis — the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib. Although overshadowed by the farmers’ agitation for some months, the issue is now back at the centrestage of Punjab politics. 

On 9 April, the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the investigations into the incidents of police firing that followed the desecrations. This was followed by the investigating officer, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, resigning in protest. 

Congress MLA and estranged leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa have taken on their own government for not defending the investigation. 

“It is clear now that both Akalis and the Congress are mixed up. They are not serious about the desecration issue,” Dhindsa said in the press conference Monday.

“On the other issue of holding SGPC elections also, the two are together. The Akalis did not want the elections because they feared losing control of the SGPC. And the Congress government has not given an office to the gurdwara election commissioner appointed by the government of India, which means the Congress does not want the elections either. They are only fooling the people. We will make sure that issues related to the Sikh panth are not ignored like this.” 

Open to ties with AAP, BSP

The front is open to joining hands with other parties, barring the SAD and Congress, for the assembly elections. 

For now, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is their best option. 

“One round of talks with AAP’s Delhi leadership took place but the local state leadership made some uncharitable remarks on that,” Peer Mohammad told ThePrint Monday. “That time we took the initiative. Now the AAP’s Delhi leadership will have to start the process. We will also look at BSP and are open to joining hands with SAD (Amritsar) (led by Simranjeet Singh Mann); SAD (1920) (led by Ravi Inder Singh) and SAD (United) (led by Gurdeep Singh Bathinda).” 

Political scientist Kaur said that a tie-up could benefit AAP. “For AAP, which has a severe dearth of heavyweight leaders in the state, tying up with this joint front might prove beneficial,” she said. “Both also have the SAD and Congress as a common enemy and there are no ideological differences to contend with.”

(Edited by Arun Prashanth)


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