Senior leaders are opposing Party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, and the Akal Takht, the Sikhs’ highest temporal seat, has called on him to respond in writing to charges of “mistakes” made during the SAD-BJP’s ten-year governance of Punjab (2007–17).
The calls for a new leader are intensifying despite the party hierarchy maintaining unity and blaming the former ally BJP of trying to split the SAD.Since the five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal passed away in April of last year, the situation has only become worse.
Source: Hindustan Times
Under the commanding leadership of Badal, the SAD emerged as a formidable force; his son Sukhbir has struggled to fill that lofty position. Furthermore, Sukhbir has struggled to shed the stigma of being a “one-family party.”
The Badals are still haunted by the ghosts of 2015, which include a string of sacrilege occurrences, the Takht’s reversal on its pardon of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a blasphemy case, and police action against demonstrators at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan.Panther voters are enraged and disenchanted with the SAD due to serious mistakes on their side.
Source: Times Now
It is understandable why the party has given a lot of territory to radical Sikhs, as demonstrated by Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa’s recent Lok Sabha election victories. Despite the SAD’s early endorsement of the controversial agricultural policies, the party withdrew from the NDA in 2020 in protest, and the farming community is no longer the party’s reliable source of votes.
The party is now poorer as a result of the departure of skilled leaders like Manpreet Singh Badal and Adesh Partap Singh Kairon. Only if the SAD makes a concerted effort to win over farmers and reclaim lost ground will a comeback be feasible.
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