Damage control: Sukhbir meets rebel Manjit Singh

AMRITSAR : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday met dissident Majha leader Bhai Manjit Singh, in an apparent move to control damage in the party.

Before meeting the senior SAD vice-president and SGPC member at his residence in Ranjit Avenue, Amritsar, Sukhbir along with former Akali minister Bikram Singh Majithia and Tarn Taran MLA Harmeet Singh Sandhu paid obeisance at the Golden Temple.

They held a closed-door meeting that lasted half an hour.

“SAD is like a family and all its members are united. I came here after got a call from Bhai Manjit Singh to have tea at his house,” Sukhbir told mediapersons coming out of the house.

On October 13, Bhai Manjit Singh, the former president of the All Indian Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) and an influential figure during the militancy, had raised a banner of revolt against the party, saying that its leadership was behind the Akal Takht pardon to Dera Sacha Sauda chief in a blasphemy case. The move will prove suicidal for the party, he had said.

Bhai Manjit Singh had also attended a function organised at Bargari in Faridkot in memory of those killed in police firing at Behbal Kalan in 2015. About his meeting with Sukhbir, he said, “We have sorted out differences after a discussion on various panthic issues,” he said.