SAD story: Party’s Panthic card comes a cropper
We bow before the people’s mandate and are confident Simranjit Mann will get the grievances of Punjabis addressed.
SUKHBIR SINGH BADAL , SAD chief
CHANDIGARH: Already facing an existential crisis, post its worstever performance in the state elections held in February, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) slid into a deeper catastrophe-like situation when on Sunday it was pushed to the fifth position in terms of vote share in the Sangrur parliamentary byelection.
The “panthic card” tossed around by the Badals-led Akali party during campaigning, with focus on the demand for release of bandhi (detenues) Sikhs, has failed to catch the voters’ attention in a constituency in Malwa belt of Punjab – once the Akali bastion. Radical leader Simranjit Singh Mann’s victory has been proved that voters, particularly the Sikhs, perceive him as a better choice to take up their cause, and Mann on his part, had also promised to fight for detenues, apart from taking up other issues.
SAD fielded Bibi Kamaldeep Kaur Rajoana, the sister of Balwant Singh Rajoana who is one of the assassins of Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and is currently undergoing sentence in Patiala jail. The party projected her as the lynchpin for bandhi Sikhs’ release; however, she could garner only 44,428 votes, and trailed behind the candidates of Bharatya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Simranjit Singh Mann of SAD (Amritsar), who was declared victorious, garnered 253,154 votes. Bibi Rajoana, along with the candidates of Congress and BJP, even failed to get one-sixth of the total votes to save their deposits. The poor show is despite the fact that SAD, during its campaign, had claimed that Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Hapreet Singh has recommended a candidate from the families of bandhi Sikhs. Once a key stakeholder in Punjab’s political scene, SAD has now been pushed beyond the margins and its comeback seems to be a Herculean task for the present leadership. SAD may feel that the blame it faces over the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib in 2015, when the party along with its former ally BJP was in power, has been erased out of public memory, but seems to have a long way to go.
Realising the lack of popularity among voters, the SAD leadership, including its president Sukhbir Singh Badal, left them out of the outdoor campaign as only Bibi Rajoana was projected on billboards and banners, a proof that SAD has entered into the fray as an underdog.
More trouble for Sukhbir
With the latest defeat, the SAD president, who is already facing opposition within the party particularly after the debacle in state polls, has lost a chance to regain political strength.
“After two decades of Punjabiyat plank, SAD now tried to jump over panthic bandwangon, but it has failed miserably. The party needs introspection to regain relevance in panthic and Punjabi spheres,” said Amanpreet Gill, an associate professor of political science in Khalsa College, New Delhi. A 13-member committee set up by the party leadership to give report on party revival and course-correction has already sought Sukhbir’s resignation from the party president’s post. The voices of dissent are expected to get shriller as the leadership has given one chance to prove his political mettle in the bypoll, however, it proved a lost case for party’s top man. The party needs to re-invent itself and push for radical changes, especially when the upcoming polls of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) will also pose a stiff challenge to the party amid its dwindling popularity.