Chandigarh. After the poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections after the assembly elections, there has been a rebellion in the Shiromani Akali Dal. The senior leaders of the party have opened a front against the party chief Sukhbir Badal. Their demand is that Sukhbir Badal should leave his post and some other leader should be given the responsibility.
Senior Akali Dal leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Sikander Singh Maluka, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Sarwan Singh Phillaur took out Akali Dal Bachao Morcha in Jalandhar. These leaders raised the flag of rebellion against party president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Earlier, a meeting of the leaders was held for five hours to discuss the future of the party. It is being said that most of the leaders want Sukhbir Singh Badal to immediately resign from the post of president. Chandumajra said, a person with strong political and religious understanding should be given the command of the party. Let us tell you that all these leaders did not attend the meeting of constituency in-charges called by Sukhbir Badal in Chandigarh. On the other hand, Sukhbir Singh Badal termed the meeting of party leaders in Jalandhar as an attempt to weaken the Shiromani Akali Dal. Badal said, we will strongly fight this attempt.
Let us tell you that in the Lok Sabha elections, the Akali Dal had fielded candidates on all 13 seats in Punjab. But it won only one seat, Bathinda. This seat was also won due to Sukhbir Badal’s wife Harsimrat. The deposit of 10 candidates of the party was forfeited. The party got 27.45% votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but in this election it got only 13.42% votes. At the same time, BJP got 18.52% vote share, which was 9.63% in 2019.
After the Lok Sabha election results, the Akali Dal is not only facing criticism on the issue of Amritpal, but there is also a demand for reform within the party. Many senior leaders including Dhindsa, Bibi Jagir Kaur and Manpreet Singh Ayali have raised questions on the continuous poor performance of the Akali Dal. The leaders said, we need to sit and think seriously about what should be done to save the existence of the party. Ayali demanded the implementation of the Jhund Committee report to bring the party back on track. He said that it is unfortunate that the people of Punjab have lost their faith in the party of martyrs.
Tags: Punjab news, Shiromani Akali Dal, Sukhbir Singh Badal
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 25, 2024, 20:56 IST