CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided not to fight the by-elections to four assembly seats — Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal (SC), Gidderbaha and Barnala to be held on November 13. It would be after 32 years that the second oldest political party of the country would not be fighting the elections. The decision to this effect was taken by the core committee of the more than 100-year-old Shiromani Akali Dal. After the meeting Senior SAD leader Daljit Cheema announced that the party would not contest the bypolls. Cheema said that after deliberations with the senior leaders and workers of the party, the core committee had decided not to field candidates in these by-elections in the larger interests of the Sikh community. He said that Akal Takht Jathedar (High Priest) Giani Raghbir Singh yesterday ordered that the party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who was declared “tankhaiya’’ – guilty of religious misconduct – not to participate in any political activity including campaigning for the party. Thus he cannot contest from the Gidderbaha assembly seat. “In the meeting today all these facts were kept before the senior party leadership, district presidents and other and the whole party was of the view that as Sukhbir Badal is party president so he took the moral responsibility and we cannot go against the decision of the akal takht as the party leaders and workers had already started the campaigning,” he said.
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