SAD after Badal

The all-important question being asked after Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal’s death is whether his ailing party can witness a resurgence in his absence. The century-old SAD, for long a powerhouse of Punjab politics, has been virtually reduced to a nonentity in the state, with just three members in the 117-strong Assembly. It was Badal’s calming influence and troubleshooting prowess, developed and sharpened over the decades, that prevented the party from falling apart in recent years. Now that the five-time CM is no more, the onus is on his son Sukhbir Singh Badal, the party president since January 2008, to resurrect the SAD. The 60-year-old Sukhbir faces a slew of challenges, the foremost ones being regaining the trust of Sikh voters and securing undisputed acceptance of his leadership within the party. The party’s Panthic credentials were so heavily dented by the sacrilege incidents and the subsequent protests in 2015 that it has still not managed to recover from those body blows. The perception that the SAD is practically a one-family party is another stumbling block.

With the morale of the party rank and file at a very low ebb, it seems unlikely that the SAD can revitalise itself without the support of a strong ally. The experiment of forging an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party has proved to be a disaster. Having taken the drastic step of walking out of the BJP-led NDA in 2020 in protest against the contentious farm laws (later repealed in the wake of the farmers’ agitation), the SAD will now have to take a call on mending fences with the old partner. Running out of allies, the BJP, which has packed its Punjab unit with former Congress leaders, may not be averse to tying up with the Akalis to make inroads into the AAP-ruled state.

Some signs of reconciliation are visible. PM Modi not only termed Badal’s demise a ‘personal loss’ but also visited the SAD office in Chandigarh to pay tributes to the departed Akali leader. How well Sukhbir navigates the choppy waters will determine whether his party will stay afloat or sink.

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