JALANDHAR: Even as the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) led by Parkash Singh Badal has authorized the party president to take disciplinary action against those expressing their dissent publicly, rumblings against the leadership of Badal continued, particularly in Doaba region where two senior party leaders have openly come out against him. While Sukhjinder Singh, a two time cabinet minister in Akali governments, quit the party, Kuldip Singh Wadala, who announced his resignation from all party offices without quitting the SAD as such, maintained that there was no point meeting with Badal over the issues raised by him. Although party secretary general Sukh dev Singh Dhindsa has withdrawn his resignation and attended the PAC meeting held at Chandigarh, yet a large number of rebel candidates in the fray for the coming SGPC elections remained a cause of worry for the party leadership. Sukhjinder Singh resigned from the party in protest against what he termed as a “fraud perpetrated on party workers” by the party leadership in allocating tickets for the elections to the general house of the SGPC.
Announcing his resignation ‘here, Sukhjinder Singh said that party president Prakash Singh
Badal and SGPC president Gurchran Singh Tohra have not only flouted the party rules for choosing persons for the SGPC, but have allocated tickets purely for monetary gains, and to sycophants. The veteran Akali leader, who, in recent months, had nursed simmering discontent against the party leadership for ignoring him while constituting the party’s organizational setup and allocating tickets, affirmed that although he had resigned yet he would remain an “Akali” at heart. He, however, said that he was keeping all options open.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 18, 1996
