Chandigarh: Sukhbir Singh Badal, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab and president of the Shiromani Akali Dal, is bracing for the toughest electoral battle of his political career.
The 56-year-old son of six-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has been announced as the SAD’s candidate for the Lok Sabha polls from Ferozepur.
The Badal scion is contesting the polls at a time when the nearly-century-old party is in the midst of an existential crisis. The party’s core base, the traditional Jat Sikh vote bank, lies shaken if not completely depleted. SAD sources said his candidacy is a significant attempt to regain lost ground, and is expected to enthuse the party cadre.
Sukhbir is currently an MLA from Jalalabad, one of the nine assembly segments under the Lok Sabha constituency, and will battle former Akali MP Sher Singh Ghubaya, who recently joined the Congress.
In a statement issued later in the day, Sukhbir said he was grateful the party has chosen him to work for it and serve the people of the constituency with “missionary zeal”.
A win in Ferozepur could revive the sagging fortunes of the SAD, and be a personal boost to the party chief, since an NDA victory at the Centre would also bring with it the prospect of a cabinet berth.
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Desecration incidents & SAD’s implosion
The manner in which the Akalis handled the incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib is considered one of the most important reasons why they suffered a humiliating defeat in the ensuing assembly polls.
The Badal family, including Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir, his wife and union minister Harsimrat, and her brother, former Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, have been squarely blamed for not bringing to justice those who desecrated the Sikh holy text in 2015, when the Akalis were in power.
To add insult to injury, the Akalis then allowed the state police to fire at Sikhs protesting against the incident of desecration. Two Sikhs were killed in one such firing incident.
After coming to power, the Congress made the most of the issue, ensuring that it does not die down with the election results. The newly-formed government under Captain Amarinder Singh set up a commission of inquiry into the desecrations and the firing incidents. The commission held the Badals responsible for what had happened. A special investigation team was formed on the recommendation of the commission, which arrested several policeman and summoned Sukhbir, who was the home minister at the time of the incidents, for questioning.
While the SAD stridently opposed the findings of the commission, it also imploded, with the old guard led by MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura and former minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan resigning from the party after decades of association. The breakaway group went on to create a Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali), and has now fielded its own candidates in opposition to the SAD’s official candidates.
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Sukhbir’s track record
Sukhbir’s first tryst with national politics came in 1996, when he was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from Faridkot. He won again in 1998, and was union minister of state for industry in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
He then served as Rajya Sabha MP from 2001 to 2004, and was re-elected to the 14th Lok Sabha in 2004 from Faridkot.
When the Akali-BJP coalition won power in Punjab in 2007, Sukhbir returned to the state to lead the religio-political party. He was made SAD president in 2008. He led the SAD to another victory in 2012.
However, the 2017 assembly polls saw the Akalis reduced from 56 seats to 15, and ally BJP from 12 to three. The Congress stormed to power with 77 seats out of 117, while the AAP emerged as the runner-up with 20 seats.
‘Bankruptcy of SAD’
Congress leader and Punjab cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the announcement of Sukhbir’s name reflected the “bankruptcy” within the SAD — it couldn’t even find candidates to contest on Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats.
“The Badals have finished the legacy of a party which had promised so much to the people of Punjab. The centenary of the party falls next year, by which time they would have completely decimated the party,” Randhawa said.
Punjab votes in the final phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on 19 May.
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