By Asia Samachar | Panjab |
Former Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh has been elected as president of a breakaway faction of the Shiromani Akali Dal in a move to challenge Sukhbir Singh Badal’s already wanning hold on the Panjab political party.
In an election yesterday (Aug 11), the 53-year-old religious leader was elected unanimously after emerging a vocal critic of Sukhbir who now leads a party with mere three Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Panjab assembly and a single MP.
“I will not run for MLA or MP,” he told those present after his election at Gurdwara Burj Akali Phoola Singh in Amritsar.
Satwant Kaur, daughter of slained Amrik Singh, was appointed chairperson of the Panthic Council of the new party formed by a five-member committee constituted by the Akal Takht.
Also present at the meeting were former SGPC presidents Bibi Jagir Kaur and Gobind Singh Longowal, along with Prem Singh Chandumajra.
The elevation officially splits the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) into yet another faction and compounds further Sikh and Panjab politics as Harpreet was the primary force when the Akal Takht-led panj pyarey declared Sukhbir a ‘tankhaya’ in August 2024.
Harpreet, along with thedar Giani Raghbir Singh and Giani Sultan Singh, were among the five to drop the pronouncement on Sukhbir for the various “mistakes” committed by the SAD government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017. See here.
This led to Sukhbir — the son of two-time Panjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, a wealthy and politically powerful family — presenting himself at Darbar Sahib, popularly known as the Golden Temple, to perform ‘seva’.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) later removed all three of them from their posts – Raghbir as Akal Takhat jathedar, Sultan as Takht Kesgarh jathedar and Harpreet as Takht Damdama Sahib jathedar.
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