Eight Akali ministers bite the dust

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 11

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) suffered its worst-ever defeat in Punjab since the state’s reorganisation, winning just 15 seats.

The previous lowest figure for the Akali Dal after 1966 was 24 seats, won in 1972. The Akalis had bagged 48 seats in 2007 and 56 in 2012.

The party will not have its Leader of the Opposition, who will be elected from among the 22 MLAs of the AAP-Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) combine. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal today thanked the party voters and accepted the verdict, while assuring cooperation to the new government “in the larger interests of Punjab”. The apparent failure of Sukhbir’s leadership is likely to come up for discussion at a core committee meeting of the party, scheduled next week.

Within the Badal family, Food Minister and CM’s son-in-law Adaish Partap Singh Kairon lost from Patti. Among the ministers, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Ajit Singh Kohar, Bikram Singh Majithia and Sharanjit Singh Dhillon won. Eight others — Kairon, Tota Singh, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Surjit Singh Rakhra, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Dr Daljit Singh Cheema and Sohan Singh Thandal — were defeated.

The party won just two seats in Majha — Bikram Singh Majithia from Majitha and Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal from Batala. In the 69-seat Malwa, the party bagged just eight, including the seats retained by the CM and the Deputy CM, as the dera factor didn’t come into play for the Akalis.

Up against anti-incumbency of 10 years and the anti-Badal rhetoric all through the election campaign, the party desperately tried to change the perception that owed its origin to the drug taint on several Akali leaders; the vendetta politics against supporters of rival parties; and the monopolisation of various businesses. Though the party did build infrastructure, the development agenda took a backseat for the voters.