In setback to fractured Akali Dal, its two-time legislator Sukhi joins AAP

Chandigarh, Aug 14 (IANS) In a setback to the badly-fractured Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), its two-time legislator Sukhwinder Sukhi from Banga in Punjab, on Wednesday joined the AAP in Chandigarh.

Punjab Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann, inducted him into the party.

The family of Sukhi has been associated with the BSP.

Sukhi had contested the elections in 2009 on the BSP ticket. Later he left the Mayawati-led party and joined the Akali Dal.

In 2017, when the Akali Dal made him its candidate, he won from the Banga Assembly constituency.

At that time, there was a wave in the state against the alliance of the Akali Dal and the BJP.

In 2022, only three MLAs of the Akali Dal won the elections in Punjab, and one of them was Sukhi.

Sukhi has won from Banga Assembly for the second time. Now the Akali Dal is left with only two MLAs.

It will further mount pressure on Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal to resign as party chief.

The Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikh religion, last month summoned Sukhbir Badal to appear before it and submit his reply to the allegations levelled by a group of Akali leaders against him.

The summoning of Badal came in the wake of rebel Akali leaders seeking an apology for sacrilege incidents during the Akali Dal’s 10-year stint in Punjab from 2007.

The incidents comprise hurting religious sentiments of the Sikh community by self-styled godman and Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh by allegedly performing an imitation of Guru Gobind Singh at the sect's dera in 2007 and sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.

After facing defeat in the parliamentary polls, the rebels, comprising former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra, former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, and former minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, on July 1 appealed to Giani Raghbir Singh that they were “ready to face any punishment that the Akal Takht may deem appropriate”.

In a letter to the Akal Takht Jathedar, they “admitted guilt” over the “mistakes committed” by the party leadership that have "hurt" the Sikh Panth.

The letter had claimed that Sukhbir Badal, now Akali Dal chief, allegedly used his influence to pardon the Dera Sacha Sauda chief in the blasphemy case.

The Akal Takht had pardoned the Dera Sacha Sauda chief in the blasphemy case after a written apology in 2015.