As Akali Dal hits rock bottom, chief Sukhbir Singh Badal too loses litmus test

His party ended up with its worst-ever showing at the polls as its tally plummeted to three. Though he is credited with bringing the SAD to power in 2012 for a second straight term, the former deputy chief minister is blamed for the party’s continuing decline since then. In 2017, the SAD managed to finish third, winning just 15 seats in the 117-member Assembly. The downturn continued in 2019 when the party managed to win only two of Punjab’s 13 parliamentary seats — Badal from Ferozepur and his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal from Bathinda.

Having been the MP from Faridkot since the beginning of his political career in the 1990s, Sukhbir became the acting president of the Akali Dal in March 2007 and the regular president on January 31, 2008. The former deputy CM continues to hold the position to date.

In the last few elections, Sukhbir has been at the centre stage for the Akali Dal, having come out of the shadow of his father and five-time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who also lost to the Aam Aadmi Party’s Gurmeet Singh Khudian in Lambi on Thursday.

He is known for his “corporate style” of functioning that came under challenge from several veteran Akali leaders after the party’s poor showing in 2017. Veteran Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa went on to form the SAD (Saanyukt), which contested the polls in alliance with the BJP and the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress. With the latest lacklustre performance at the polls, his problems are only likely to multiply.