The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which has been going through a challenging phase over the past few years, faced another setback on Monday as the party faced a virtual split following the rebel faction announcing its new president.
In the meeting in Amritsar of the Akal Takht-appointed committee, which was last year given the mandate to supervise the restructuring of the party, the breakaway faction on Monday declared former Akal Takht acting chief priest Giani Harpreet Singh as its president.
Satwant Kaur was appointed chairperson of the Panthic (Sikh) council. The Akal Takht is the highest Sikh temporal seat.
Ever since Sukhbir Singh Badal’s re-election as SAD president, the rebels had been alleging that the Akal Takht’s verdict of December 2, 2024 – which awarded religious punishments to him and several other party leaders for the “mistakes” committed by the Akali Dal-led government from 2007 to 2017 – was not implemented in letter and spirit. The temporal authority had issued directions to the working committee of SAD to constitute a panel to hold elections for the post of party president and office-bearers, which the rebels pointed out was not adhered to.
Mr. Harpreet Singh was part of the Sikh clergy that had issued the December 2, 2024 verdict. In February, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had dismissed his services as the jathedar of Takht Sri Damdama Sahib.
