It’s ‘one family, one ticket’ rule for Shiromani Akali Dal

Tribune News Service

Jupinderjit Singh

Chandigarh, March 20

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will for the first time follow “one family, one ticket” rule while picking candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.

Party sources said it meant that only one person from the Badal family would contest the elections. At present, both party president Sukhbir Singh Badal and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal are MPs from Ferozepur and Bathinda, respectively. The sources said only Harsimrat would contest the elections from the Badal family this time. She would be defending her Bathinda seat. There was earlier talk of her contesting the Khadoor Sahib seat, but the sources strongly refuted it.

Bid to ensure Fair play

• There were whispers within the ranks that the Akali Dal was under the control of a single family
• Senior leaders had been pitching for the ‘one family, one ticket’ rule for long to ensure fair play in the party

Many senior SAD leaders, other than the Badal family, had been pitching for the “one family, one ticket” rule for long. Sukhbir is already trying to mend fences with senior Akali leaders and has regretted several decisions of the party leadership in the past. Following this, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Parminder Singh Dhindsa and Jagir Kaur among others have returned to the party. Meanwhile, there is no final word on an alliance with the BJP. The latter has already decided to contest Patiala, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur seats. It is also keen on Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Ferozepur, but the Akali Dal doesn’t want to share more than five seats with the BJP. A senior leader said the Akali Dal also wanted a commitment from the BJP on issues of farmers and release of Sikh political prisoners.

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#Lok Sabha #Shiromani Akali Dal