Bypoll result shot in arm for SAD

Despite loss, the Tarn Taran bypoll has come as a shot in the arm for Sukhbir Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) that is striving to make a comeback in the state in the 2027 Assembly poll.

Though the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was successful in retaining the seat, considered a Panthic stronghold, the SAD secured the second position.

The seat falls under the Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency, represented by NSA detainee Amritpal Singh, who is currently lodged in an Assam jail.

The SAD had fielded Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa, a retired principal belonging to the family a ‘Dharmi Fauji’, who had deserted the Army following the Operation Blue Star in 1984.

Rebel Akalis and the party’s splinter groups failed to make an impact with Randhawa bagging impressive 30,558 votes.

Against her was Mandeep Singh, the joint candidate of Amritpal Singh-led Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit), a SAD faction led by former Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh.

Mandeep is the brother of Sandeep Singh Sunny, an accused in the murder case of Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri.

Sunny is currently lodged in a Sangrur jail and had hit the headlines recently for assaulting former police officers, convicted in fake encounter cases, in a Patiala jail. Mandeep got 19,620 votes.

It also signified that the Panthic votes, the division in which had led to the victory of Amritpal Singh in the Lok Sabha poll, settled in favour of Randhawa.

Amritpal had won the Khadoor Sahib sear by nearly 2 lakh votes.

The bypoll also pointed towards rejection to the claims of Giani Harpreet Singh, one of the five high priests who had pronounced Sukhbir guilty of religious misconduct on December 2 last year.

Giani Harpreet had repeatedly alleged in his public addresses that Sukhbir and his ‘coterie’ of several former ministers were culprits of the Panth as they had defied the ‘hukumnama’ (edict) and conducted the SAD’s internal poll process without involving the Akal Takht-constituted committee.

The SAD did not contest the earlier bypolls of Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Barnala and Chabbewal in 2024 due to Akal Takht’s restrictions on Sukhbir, restricting his participation in any political activity, including campaigning for the party.

Meanwhile, some experts said Sukhbir’s initiative of providing aid to flood victims paid dividends.

Sukhbir Badal described his party's performance as the “resurgence of Punjab’s regional voice exposing all anti-Punjab and anti-Panth forces”. “The Panth and Punjab delivered their verdict against these forces backed by governments and other anti-Panth forces,” he added.

Bathinda Lok Sabha MP and Sukhbir's wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the verdict was a complete rejection of national parties.

“The people of Tarn Taran have voted and rallied behind the regional party of the state and representative of Punjab and the Sikh community. People have also clearly rejected the fake Panthic parties propped up by Delhi,” she told The Tribune.