FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

The country's oldest regional party-Shiromani Akali Dal and so is its first family.

- Anilesh S. Mahajan

 Ever since the Punjab assembly election results were declared in March this year, the 102-year-old party is witnessing internal rumblings of discontent against the leadership of the Badals.

From 56 seats in 2012, the SAD has been reduced to just three seats in the 117-member state legislative assembly. The Aam Aadmi Party wave that swept Punjab (it won 92 seats) also flooded the bastions of both the SAD president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and his father and former five-time chief minister, Parkash Singh Badal. Besides the Badals, Sukhbir's two brothers-inlaw-Adesh Partap Singh Kairon and Bikram Singh Majithia-also lost their seats, while the party could muster just over 18 per cent of the votes polled-its worst showing since 1966. After the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection in June, which saw a splinter Akali group chief, Simranjit Singh Mann, emerge victorious and the SAD candidate relegated to the fifth position, the Badals find themselves cornered completely.

In mid-August, Sukhbir dissolved all the party units and offices, except his own. Many insiders say he smelled a coup. Now, in a last-ditch effort to revive the party's fortunes ahead of the 2024 general election and quell the simmering rebellion, the SAD chief has decided to go for a major organisational revamp. On September 2, he announced sweeping reforms within the party, though stopping short of a complete overhaul, as he virtually retained the top post for at least the next 10 years.