Akal Takht-constituted panel launches SAD membership drive
The panel comprising Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Iqbal Singh Jhunda, Manpreet Singh Ayali, Santa Singh Umaidpuri and Satwant Kaur addressed the gathering at Gurdwara Sri Guru Teg Bahadur here.
The Akal Takht-constituted five-member panel visited Jalandhar to initiate the membership drive of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
The panel comprising Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Iqbal Singh Jhunda, Manpreet Singh Ayali, Santa Singh Umaidpuri and Satwant Kaur addressed the gathering at Gurdwara Sri Guru Teg Bahadur here.
Addressing the gathering, the leaders stated that the recruitment drive has been initiated in compliance with the December 2 ‘hukamnama’, aimed at reorganising and reviving SAD.
“We are going to every district of Punjab to seek support from the Akali workers to come forward and join the recruitment drive so as to rejuvenate the party spirits,” said Wadala.
A special camp was organised for the drive in which the leaders and their supporters filled the forms printed under the name of Shiromani Akali Dal (Bharati (recruitment) Committee).
Wadala said they want to see a united Akali Dal but on certain conditions, including implementation of recommendations of Jhundan committee, which suggested change in the top leadership of the Akali Dal.
“We want that the party leadership should abide to the hukamnama issued by the Akal Takht on December 2 last year,” he said.
The Akal Takht’s December 2 decree not only awarded tankhah (religious punishment) to former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal and other SAD leaders for mistakes committed by the party and its government from 2007-2017 on the complaint of rebel party leaders, but also directed the SAD working committee to accept Badal’s resignation as SAD president besides constituting a seven-member committee to initiate a recruitment drive and elect new office-bearers in six months. However, the Badal faction initiated a recruitment drive under a SAD working committee, citing legalities. It was termed as a violation of the decree. The panel faced a setback after its coordinator Harjinder Singh Dhami and member Kirpal Singh Badungar quit. However, then Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh issued a fresh direction to the Takht panel to initiate the drive in February with the five-member panel.
