SAD closes distribution of copies for party' s membership drive

Chandigarh, Feb 20 (PTI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) parliamentary board on Thursday closed the process of distribution of membership copies for the recruitment of new members and informed that 33 lakh forms had been distributed to the party rank and file.
     SAD working committee on January 10 accepted Sukhbir Singh Badal's resignation as party chief, days after the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh asked it to implement the religious body's December 2 edict as soon as possible.
     The acceptance of Badal's resignation paved the way for the election of a new party chief. The working committee also announced to start a new membership drive on January 20 and hold the election for the post of new president on March 1.
     SAD's parliamentary board, which met under the chairmanship of the party's working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar, also claimed that the recruitment drive was a grand success.
     The original plan was to distribute 25 lakh forms but the party had to print another eight lakh forms due to persistent demands from the party workers, said the party in a statement.
     The entire process of distribution of membership copies was conducted flawlessly and the copies had been distributed across the state and also sent to other states according to the demands of party leaders and workers, it said.
     Senior party leader Daljit Singh Cheema said the party had also informed all state and district level observers to submit the membership copies to the party head office here by February 25 along with the names of the circle delegates who had facilitated the membership drive.
     He said once this was done, the process of electing the district delegates and the president of the party would be initiated.
     Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh on January 6 had asked SAD to implement the edict at the earliest while referring to the direction of accepting the resignation of Badal as party chief.
     While pronouncing religious punishment for Badal and other leaders on December 2 last year for the "mistakes" committed by SAD and its government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017, the Akal Takht had also directed SAD's working committee to accept the resignation of Badal as party chief and other leaders.
     Though Badal underwent religious punishment, the working committee did not accept his resignation, which he had tendered in November last year.
     Badal was declared 'tankhaiya' (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, on August 30 last year. He had undergone religious punishment.
     Badal, the former deputy chief minister, was the youngest chief of SAD, when he was elevated to the post in 2008.
     He was often credited for the party's victory in the 2012 assembly polls. But his leadership came under scanner by his party leaders after SAD could win just 15 of the 117 seats in 2017 and was finally relegated to three seats in the 2022 polls.
     In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, it could win only one seat out of the 13 parliamentary constituencies.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)