Rebel Akali leaders launch campaign aimed at strengthening outfit

Rebel Akali leaders on Monday launched a 'Shiromani Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar' aimed to "strengthen and uplift" the 103-year-old outfit while asserting that the party's present situation under the current leadership indicates that its "existence was in danger".

A section of the senior party leaders last month had revolted against SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, demanding that he should step down as the party chief following its debacle in the recently held Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.

Among the prominent leaders who raised a banner of revolt included former MP Chandumajra, former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, former MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala, former ministers Sikandar Singh Maluka, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Sarwan Singh Phillaur and Surjit Singh Rakhra, and party leader Sucha Singh Chhotepur.

 

The rebel Akali leaders on Monday appointed former MLA Gurpartap Singh Wadala as the platform's convener.

"We are going to start 'Shiromani Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar'. We request all Punjabis and 'pro-panth' people to support us in this movement," said Wadala while addressing the media here after the meeting.

"We want to uplift and strengthen the Akali Dal. We want to see the party strong. It seems that the existence of the Akali Dal is in danger with the kind of present situation the party is in today," he asserted.

Targeting Badal for bringing "corporate culture" in the SAD, Wadal said people rejected the same and drifted away from the outfit.

Wadala said they will also connect with leaders who were expelled by the Akali Dal in the past but follow the SAD ideology and will involve them in this movement.

Wadala further said they will also observe birth anniversaries of prominent leaders who made huge contributions and made sacrifices for the party.

He took the name of former chief of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee late Gurcharan Singh Tohra whose 100th birth anniversary will be observed in September.

The death anniversary of former president of SAD Harchand Singh Longowal will be observed in August, he said.

Replying to a question, Wadala asserted that the party should have implemented the Jhunda committee report which mainly had recommended change in leadership.

Had it been implemented two years back, the situation of the party would have been different, he said.

The SAD had set up the Iqbal Singh Jhundan-led committee to analyse the reasons for its humiliating defeat in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.

Wadala said there was a "leadership crisis" in the Akali Dal and there was a vacuum in the Sikh leadership.

"We want to fill it," he said.

Asked whether the rebel leaders will go to the SAD office in Chandigarh for holding any meeting, Wadala said the party office is common for everyone.

"But we will not go there forcefully," he said.