SAD faces existential crisis; Shah holds key to Badals' political survival

Thanks to the Narendra Modi factor, in the 2019 general elections, the Akali Dal won two seats, the same as the BJP. Now the key to the Badals' survival lies with Home Minister Amit Shah

As the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), India’s oldest regional party, gears up to mark its 100th year, it faces an existential crisis. Yet again. The Dhindsa clan, whose patriarch Sukhdev Dhindsa, a minister in the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet, has raised the banner of revolt. He, along with a group of renegades, after being expelled by the party earlier this year, has claimed ownership of the Akali Dal by passing a resolution to dislodge Sukhbir Singh Badal as the party’s president. This is the second revolt among the Akalis in as many years. In the run-up to the 2019