CHANDIGARH: The first family of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) lost control over the 104-year-old party for the first time in three decades as the working committee on Friday accepted the resignation of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal. Sukhbir had headed the SAD from 2008 before which his father, former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, was president of the party from 1996 till 2008 when he handed over the mantle to his son and heir apparent.After the two-hour meeting of the working committee at the party’s headquarters here, SAD spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema confirmed that Badal’s resignation has been accepted. He said the working committee also decided to launch the membership drive for reconstitution of the organizational structure of the party on January 20. Cheema said the membership drive would last for one month till February 20 as the target is to induct 25 lakh new members and that the election of the party president would be held on March 1. “The parliamentary board of the party, which is headed by working president Balwinder Singh Bhunder, will take major decisions till then,” he added.Cheema further added that senior leader Gulzar Singh Ranike had been made the chief election officer to conduct the organizational elections. SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami has been given charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, Kirpal Singh Badungar of the entire Malwa region, Manpreet Singh Ayali of Rajasthan, Santa Singh Umaidpur of Himachal Pradesh, Iqbal Singh Jhunda of Malerkotla, Paramjit Singh Sarna of Delhi, Manjit Singh GK of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Raghujit Singh Virk of Haryana.He also made an appeal to all leaders who are presently outside the SAD due to initiation of disciplinary action against them to approach the disciplinary committee so that their cases could be taken up for their return to the party.The move came after Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh asked the Akali Dal to implement its December 2 edict at the earliest, referring to its directive seeking the acceptance of Badal’s resignation, which he had submitted on November 16. The working committee had then declined to accept it, urging him to reconsider and threatening collective resignation if he persisted.
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