Brar's exit throws SAD into crisis

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 28

Ahead of the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, the Shiromani Akali Dal has gone into a crisis especially since its Jalandhar Cantonment seat has gone completely vacant post Sunday’s move of its halqa incharge Jagbir Brar to join the Aam Aadmi Party.

Problem in Jalandhar cantt since 2007

• Jagbir Brar was a SAD MLA in 2007, but he later joined the erstwhile PPP. Pargat Singh also joined the Congress and won the seat twice in 2017 and 2022.
• When Pargat hopped out of the SAD in 2016, Akalis fielded Sarabjit Makkar in 2017, but he is now with the BJP. In 2022, Brar was back as SAD candidate, but lost to Pargat
• Now, the party has lost all of its candidates who were contesting the elections since 2007, including Brar, Pargat and Makkar

Brar’s move came as a complete shocker for the party, especially since SAD chief Sukhbir Badal had been taking him along for various public meetings that were being organised about a month ago. While at one point of time the party had more than a dozen options from among party leaders wanting a ticket to contest from this hot seat, with the graph of the SAD falling many leaders have quit the party recently. Brar was a SAD MLA in 2007, but he later joined the erstwhile PPP. Pargat Singh also joined the Congress and won the seat twice in 2017 and 2022. When Pargat hopped out of SAD in 2016, Akalis fielded Sarabjit Makkar in 2017, but he is now with the BJP. In 2022, Brar was back as the SAD candidate, but lost to Pargat. Now, the party has lost all of its candidates who were contesting elections since 2007, including Brar, Pargat and Makkar. Former SAD district chief Gurcharan Singh Channi, who was a claimant from the seat, dumped the party in 2017. He is now with SAD (Sanyukt). Another ticket seeker since those days Paramjit S Raipur, who is an SGPC member and former Chairman of the Jalandhar Improvement Trust (JIT), had joined the Congress. Another former JIT Chairman Baljit S Neelamahal, who too had earlier been a ticket seeker from here, is no more.

As a damage control exercise, the party leaders, including former MLA Nakodar Gurpartap Wadala, SGPC member Kulwant S Manan, youth leader Sukhminder Rajpal and woman leader Gurdev Kaur Sangha organised a programme inviting SAD supporters. They all blamed Brar for backstabbing the party.