Jagir Kaur’s return to SAD deferred over Sukhbir’s unavailability

Jagir Kaur was scheduled to rejoin the Akali Dal on November 13, marking her second return to the party in two years following her association with the breakaway faction, SAD (Punar Surjit)

The re-induction of former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Jagir Kaur into the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has been deferred due to the unavailability of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Jagir Kaur is a four-time SGPC president and a former cabinet minister. (HT)

Kaur was scheduled to rejoin the Akali Dal on November 13, marking her second return to the party in two years following her association with the breakaway faction, SAD (Punar Surjit).

Speaking on the postponement of the event, originally set to take place at Begowal in Kapurthala, Kaur said she received a message from the party stating that all of Sukhbir’s programmes had been cancelled until November 16, and a fresh date will be announced in the coming days.

A senior SAD leader confirmed that while Sukhbir will attend an event in Ludhiana’s Nathowal village on Friday to induct Prabhdeep Singh, a deputy director in the department of information and public relations, all his subsequent engagements had been cancelled due to important meetings.

Kaur, a four-time SGPC president and a former cabinet minister, was expelled from the SAD in November 2022 after refusing to withdraw from the SGPC presidential election, which she eventually lost to the party’s official nominee, Harjinder Singh Dhami. She rejoined the SAD in March 2024, only to part ways with the party once again and join hands with Giani Harpreet Singh and other rebel leaders to form the SAD (Punar Surjit) in August 2025.

More than a year later, she recently announced her decision to return to the Badal-led SAD, stating that the objective behind forming the Punar Surjit group had not been achieved. She also pointed out that the faction had yet to be registered with the Election Commission of India.