Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, May 11

Former SAD Cabinet minister Sucha Singh Langah has been rendered ‘hors de combat’ in Gurdaspur’s political battlefield following Akal Takht’s reluctance to grant him a reprieve.

This setback coupled with filing of an NDPS case against his son Parkash Singh, means that it is virtually curtains for Langah who, at one time, was considered to be among the top-rung Akali leaders.

Sleaze video row

The Akalis started losing ground after the 2012 Assembly poll due to an assortment of reasons. The first and foremost was Sucha Singh Langah’s marginalisation. In 2017, a sleaze video featuring him and a woman surfaced. Subsequently, he was booked in a rape case and later fired by the SAD

There was a time when Langah was all-powerful. He would keep bureaucrats and police officers waiting for him at his Dhariwal residence. In this border district, he was regarded as both the king and the kingmaker. Nobody dared to point a finger at him during his two-decade tenure as district president.

Langah’s conduct and the revolt of party veteran Sewa Singh Sekhwan has dealt a crippling blow to the SAD in the area.

Ex-Speaker and yet another heavyweight Nirmal Singh Kahlon’s indisposition, too, is not helping things. It is another matter that his son Ravi Karan Kahlon is trying hard to keep the family flag flying high in their home bastion of Fatehgarh Churian.

Batala sitting SAD MLA Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal has had his wings clipped after the Congress swept the MC polls last month. There are murmurs that he may jump ship ahead of the Assembly polls. Only Gurdaspur SAD president Gurbachan Singh Babbehali is putting up a semblance of a fight.

The Akalis started losing ground after the 2012 Assembly polls due to an assortment of reasons. The first and foremost was Langah’s marginalisation. He lost the 2012 and 2017 polls to Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. In the run-up to the 2017 Gurdaspur parliamentary bypoll, a sleaze video featuring him and a woman surfaced. Subsequently, he was booked in a rape case and was later fired by his own party. On the other hand, Akal Takht excommunicated him on the basis of “immoral conduct.” He was a sitting SGPC member when the video emerged. For the last several months, Langah has been trying to get reprieve from Akal Takht which may pave way for his political comeback.

Observers opine that with the Sikh clergy in no mood to relent and with his son being booked for a crime as heinous as heroin possession, things are back to square one for Langah in particular and the Akalis in general.