Akal Takht panel initiates 'parallel' membership drive of Shiromani Akali Dal

The Akal Takht constituted a five-member panel today to kickstart the 'parallel' enrolment drive for Shiromani Akal Dal.

Advertisement

Shunning the earlier idea of placing a “suffix” with the "Shiromani Akali Dal” or omitting the word “Shiromani",  the drive was initiated  under the name "Shiromani Akali Dal” only.

A first in the process is that no membership fee was charged from aspirants. The SAD leadership, headed by working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder, had charged Rs 10 per member during its membership drive.

Originally a seven-member panel, it has now been constrained to five members as SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami, who was earlier appointed head of the panel by the five high priests on December 2, and his former counterpart Kirpal Singh Badungar, chose to quit.

At present, the Akal Takht panel includes Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Manpreet Singh Ayali, Santa Singh Umaidpuri, Iqbal Singh Jhunda and Satwant Kaur.

Wadala said that all five members were on the same page when it came to abiding by the December 2 directives of the Akal Takht. He said that the ‘ardas’ was performed at the Akal Takht.

He said that it would be conducted in a transparent and democratic manner. For the authenticity of new members, their Adhaar Card number is being mentioned on membership slip.

The ‘ardas’ was performed by Giani Harpreet Singh at the Akal Takht, followed by which he got himself registered as the first member under this drive.

He said that this drive should be given encouragement to strengthen the Panth on the political sphere.

On the other hand, undermining the authority of the Akal Takht panel, the SAD, which claimed to have made over 22 lakh members, is all set to take forward its membership drive to elect the delegates at the district level across the 117 Assembly constituencies and form a general house to elect the party’s new president.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that the officiating Jathedar of Akali Takht Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargaj has invited the five-member panel for parley.