Badals' nearly three-decade SAD reign comes to an end

It will be for the first time since 1996 that the party will not be helmed by the Badal family

- Gurpreet Singh Nibber

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) working committee's Friday decision to accept the resignation tendered by Sukhbir Singh Badal in November last year marks the end of an unchallenged legacy of the Badals at the helm of party affairs spanning nearly three decades.

Parkash Singh Badal took the reins of the party in 1996.

Badal's departure marks the end of a challenging period for both him and the party. Having first won election as MP from Faridkot in 1998, he became SAD president in 2008 and served as deputy chief minister in the SAD-BJP government. However, the party faced significant setbacks under his leadership, including the 2015 protests over the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and diminishing electoral performance.

In the 2022 state elections, SAD's representation in the assembly dropped to just three MLAs, with Badal himself losing his seat amid AAP's sweeping victory with 92 MLAs.

Five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, who donned the role of a patriarch, passed on the party's reins to his son Sukhbir in 2008, a year after the party formed a coalition government along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).