CHANDIGARH: Out of power in Punjab, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) finds itself embroiled in a turf war and forced to manage the contradictions which threaten it from within. SAD’s desperation was out in public at its on February 2 Sangrur rally, at which party patriarch Parkash Singh Badal made a rare appearance to pronounce expulsion of veteran politician Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (84) and his son Parminder. The father-son duo had already been suspended for ‘anti-party activities’ around October 2019. Sangrur is considered Dhindsa’s turf. The expulsion ‘decided by the congregation’, however, gave away the helplessness of the Badals, especially scion Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Dhindsa’s ‘rebellion’ was stated to be ‘to free SAD from the Badals’. A former union minister, Dhindsa has long pilloried the SAD leadership for the sacrilege issue of 2015 and Kotkapura-Behbal Kalan firings, which led to loss of SAD’s Panthic votes and loss of power in 2017. SAD sources, however, claim Dhindsa’s main grouse is his belief that the Badals had twice conspired to shoot down his nomination as governor and also due to support from a section within the BJP. Some Saffron leaders want BJP to go alone than remain second fiddle to SAD, they said. This group would like to split SAD and amalgamate it and Dhindsa appears to offer a chance.
While BJP leaders agree that there is grouse of being second best in a SAD-BJP coalition, the top leadership is averse to ditching the Akalis for it may look like an anti-minority move and compromise BJP’s own Sikh vote base. Political watchers believe BJP is definitely interested in senior Dhindsa as it ‘invested’ in him by conferring on him a Padma Bhushan in 2019 for ‘distinguished public service,’ leaving the Badal’s surprised. However, BJP leaders believe Dhindsa’s weight lies in whether he can effectively split SAD and force senior leaders to join him, since the Taksalis are a spent force and offer little. Senior Dhindsa, who has sought appointment to meet Home Minister Amit Shah, has already cultivated former Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjit Singh GK, who too was expelled, even as he is trying to rope in Akali leaders of Doaba, Hoshairpur and Jalandhar ahead of his Sangrur rally on February 23.
Many disgruntled senior leaders are watching the war within unfold, the Dhindsa camp claims. He has also made overtures to SAD Taksali leaders too, besides the Bains brothers of Lok Insaaf Party and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, in a bid to bring together all anti-Badal groups. SAD spokesman Daljeet Singh Cheema believes, “all such developments mean little”, while claiming “some Taksali leaders who left SAD are already in contact for permission to rejoin.” “In the past too big leaders like Gurcharan Singh Tohra left the party only to return. Many others will, since none who left the party like Surjit Singh Barnala, Simranjit Singh Mann or Jagdev Singh Talwandi, failed to make a mark outside SAD.”
Political analyst Kuldip Singh believes “the SAD at present is ill-equipped to withstand such challenges as Dhindsa’s, though the Taksalis may not have the resources to take on the Badals.” Yet the Taksalis were planning three district-level conferences in Tarn Taran, Sangrur and Ropar to expose Sukhbir as an ‘immature leader’ and counter the planned SAD surge through a series of rallies to neutralise rebel influence.