Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa quits as SAD Rajya Sabha leader

Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 19

Senior SAD leader and Member of Parliament Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa today resigned as leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha, indicating a rift within. A vocal critic of the Badal family, he has been speaking  against the party on sacrilege incidents that occurred during the SAD-BJP rule. In September last, he quit all party posts, citing Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on the role of the Akali leadership in events leading to sacrilege incidents and the police firing at Kotkapura and Bargari. He did not campaign for the SAD during the Lok Sabha elections.

Immediately after his resignation, SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema tweeted that the party had on June 12 already replaced him with Balwinder Singh Bhunder. Speaking to The Tribune, Dhindsa claimed: 

“No one informed me about my removal. I learnt of it only after I had resigned”. He did not give reasons for the same. “I will continue as MP and serve the state,” he said.

The SAD leadership appears in no mood for a reconciliation. Several leaders, who did not wish to be quoted, pointed out that  Dhindsa had resigned from key posts last year and had now chosen to announce his resignation days before byelections in Punjab’s four constituencies. 

“If the party did not inform him on being replaced by Bhunder, he too did not intimate the party that he was resigning,” they argued. 

Dhindsa met RS Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday and put in his papers. Dhindsa’s resignation will not have any bearing on his son Parminder Singh Dhindsa, who is Leader of the SAD Legislature Party, said sources.