In Badal’s resignation, an opportunity for SAD

For SAD, this is a moment of reckoning, and an opportunity to regain lost ground.

Sukhbir Singh Badal’s resignation as the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is not surprising, for his continuance at the helm of the party became difficult after the Akal Takht, the spiritual seat of the Sikh community, declared him a tankhaiya (someone guilty of violating the religious code). As a panthic party, SAD could not have let Badal continue as president after the move.

Sukhbir Singh Badal (ANI file) (HT_PRINT)

The Badal family has helmed the party since 1996 and dominated its electoral politics. Parkash Singh Badal was the chief minister of Punjab four times and is the only CM to win back-to-back assembly polls between 2007 and 2017. However, the party has been sliding since 2017: Its vote share dipped from 27.57% in the 2019 general election to 13.4% in 2024 and its presence in the Punjab legislative assembly is now limited to a mere three MLAs. This decline can be blamed on the monopolisation of authority by the Badal family, which alienated the party from its rural peasant base. Corruption charges have singed the Badals and rebellions wreaked the party. The 2019 agitation over farm laws hurt SAD, an ally of the BJP at the Centre, which initially supported the measures. Later, the party, a founding member of the NDA, broke ties with the BJP.

For SAD, this is a moment of reckoning, and an opportunity to regain lost ground. The party has a rich political legacy and cadre network in rural Punjab. It may return to the political centre stage if it revives internal democracy and invests in collective leadership. SAD has survived many crises in the past — for instance, the rise of religious extremism in the 1980s that posed an existential threat to it — by reinventing its politics and trusting its cadre. The party could learn from that when it holds elections in December to pick a new president.