Two-time SAD MP Paramjit Kaur Gulshan joins rebel Dhindsa’s faction in Sukbhir’s turf

Sukhmeet Bhasin
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, March 7

Former Shiromani Akali Dal member of parliament Paramjit Kaur Gulshan joined rebel Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s faction here on Saturday 10 months after she was denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections as a party candidate.

Addressing a press briefing in Bathinda—SAD President Sukhbir Badal’s Lok Sabha constituency—Gulshan said that her father, SAD leader Dhana Singh Gulshan, had done much for the party, but that she felt the party had insulted him when she was made to run from pillar to post for a year to have a photo of his installed at the Sikh Museum. She claimed SGPC officials had even told her they had no such orders from the party high command.

She also claimed that the party mistreated its SC/ST leaders by constantly shunting them from one assembly to another. For example, she said, SAD Member of Legislative Assembly Darshan Singh Kotfatta was transferred from Bathinda Rural to Bucho and then on to Malout.

Speaking to the press, Dhindsa said he had launched a drive to “free” the SAD and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee from the influence of the politically powerful Badals.

“When Parkash Singh Badal (the SAD patriarch and former chief minister of Punjab) was at the helm of the party, he would listen to everyone. However, since Sukhbir Badal has taken over the party, he is running it like a dictator,” he said.

He also reacted to Badals’ remarks that he was given many a plum post saying that he did not deny he was given opportunities but it was workers like him that made the senior Badal the chief minister.

“SAD was constituted as a panthic party in 1920, but today it has moved away from its core principles and is now being run as a family enterprise,” he said.

Gulshan was first elected MP from Bathinda in 2004 and in 2009 from Faridkot. However, she lost the 2019 general elections in Faridkot and was skipped in last year’s general elections.

Dhindsa rebelled against the Akali leadership under SAD president Sukhbir Badal and finally quit the party in January this year. He later joined hands with SAD splinter groups, including the SAD (Taksali).