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Gidderbaha halqa in-charge Dhillon quits Shiromani Akali Dal ahead of bypolls
Dhillon smells hidden political collusion between Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, his cousin and BJP leader Manpreet Badal. Party spokesperson Dr Daljit Singh Cheema has refuted the allegations.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday suffered a “political blow” with the exit of party leader and Gidderbaha halqa in-charge Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon ahead of the bypolls.
Dhillon, a trusted aide of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, said he decided to quit the party with heavy heart and alleged that his political inning of nearly four decades with the SAD was sacrificed by nepotism and suspected designs of hobnobbing with political rivals.
Dhillon, in a video posted on social media, said he got a whiff of hidden political collusion between Sukhbir, his cousin and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Manpreet Badal.
“Manpreet, who was a SAD legislator from Gidderbaha but was later shifted to Bathinda, has enhanced his political activities again in Gidderbaha. He is visiting villagers of his old turf but not making people join the BJP. My requests to Sukhbir to make clear statements that the SAD is not in league with the BJP and Manpreet to keep the party cadre intact remained unanswered raising serious questions,” said Dhillon, 56.
Dhillon added that he was feeling suffocated in the party with the non-transparent political developments initiated by the party leadership. “My supporters advised me to leave the party,” he said.
The Gidderbaha seat fell vacant after the state Congress president Amridner Singh Raja Warring quit Gidderbaha after being elected from the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat.
Dhillon has been unsuccessfully contesting from the politically significant seat of Gidderbaha for three consecutive times since 2012.
Gidderbaha falls in Muktsar, the home district of Badals. It once remained an electoral bastion of the SAD. Akali patriarch and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal got elected from Gidderbaha for a record five times in a row.
Later, Badal handed over the Gidderbaha constituency to Manpreet who got elected as an MLA from the seat four times in a row.
Reacting to Dhillon’s exit from the party, SAD spokesperson Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said: “The party has no intention to bring any leader from any other party as a candidate in Giddarbaha. Such news is false and baseless. The party urges Dhillon not to be misled by any propaganda. The party fully trusted and supported Dhillon for the upcoming by-election.”
The party president has openly advocated at meetings that Dhillon was the best candidate for the Giddarbaha seat, he added.
