SAD president justifies jathedars' removal, says they were being controlled by Centre

His re-election comes months after he stepped down in compliance with the punishment set down by Akal Takht

- Surjit Singh

AMRITSAR: Sukhbir Singh Badal was re-elected the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president unanimously during the delegate meeting of the party, held at Teja Singh Samundri Hall, the headquarters of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), at the Golden Temple complex on Saturday.

This is the fourth time that the 62-year-old former deputy chief minister has been elected to the post, amid the ongoing turmoil in the 104-year-old party, which is facing an existential crisis and revolt by a considerable section of the senior party leaders over the leadership of the Sukhbir.

He was first elected as the party president in 2008 and at 45, was the youngest person to occupy the post. Sukhbir, the son of late party patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, was the only candidate for the post of party president.

He resigned from the post on November 16 last year after being declared a tankhaiya (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, for the mistakes of the party and its government from 2007 to 2017. His resignation was accepted on January 10 this year by the working committee of the party. Sukhbir also survived an assassination attempt by a former Khalistani terrorist at Amritsar's Golden Temple while performing sewa (service) as penance in December last year.

Sukhbir's name for Saturday's elections was proposed by outgoing working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar and was endorsed by Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Paramjit Singh Sarna.

The delegates gave their consent by raising their hands, following which party chief election officer Gulzar Singh Ranike declared Sukhbir, as the new president of the party.

There were 507 delegates, as claimed by the party leaders and they also authorised the president to constitute the party's new working committee.