Shiromani Akali Dal | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President | Sukhbir Singh Badal |
| Lok Sabha Leader | Harsimrat Kaur Badal |
| Founded | 14 December 1920 (104 years ago) (1920-12-14) |
| Headquarters | Block #6, Madhya Marg Sector 28,Chandigarh |
| Newspaper | Akali Awaaz |
| Student wing | Student Organisation of India[1] |
| Youth wing | Youth Akali Dal |
| Women's wing | Istri Akali Dal[2] |
| Labour wing | Shiromani Akali Dal SC wing[3] |
| Peasant's wing | Shiromani Akali Dal BC wing[4] |
| Ideology | Conservatism[5][6] Punjabiyat[7][8][9][10] Punjabi nationalism[11][12] Federalism[13][14] |
| Political position | Centre-right[15][16] toright-wing[17] |
| Colours | Navy Blue & Saffron |
| ECI Status | State Party[18] |
| Alliance | SAD+BSP(2021-2023) SAD+INLD(2021-Present)NDA(1998–2020) |
| Seats in Rajya Sabha | 0 / 245 |
| Seats in Lok Sabha | 1 / 543 |
| Seats in Punjab Legislative Assembly | 2 / 117 |
| Election symbol | |
 | |
| Website | |
| www | |
TheShiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation:Supreme Eternal Party[19]) is acentre-rightSikh-centric state political party inPunjab,India. The party is the second-oldest inIndia, afterCongress, being founded in 1920.[20][21][22] Although there are many parties with the descriptionAkali Dal, the party that is recognised as "Shiromani Akali Dal" by theElection Commission of India is the one led bySukhbir Singh Badal. The party has a moderatePunjabi agenda.[23] On 26 September 2020, it left theNational Democratic Alliance over thefarm bills.[24]
Akali Dal was formed on 14 December 1920 as a task force of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, the Sikh religious body. The Akali Dal considers itself the principal representative of Sikhs. Sardar Sarmukh Singh Chubbal was the first president of a unified proper Akali Dal, but it became popular underMaster Tara Singh.[25]Akali movement influenced 30 new Punjabi newspapers launched between 1920 and 1925.[26]
In theprovincial election of 1937, the Akali Dal won 10 seats. The Khalsa Nationalists won 11 seats and joined the coalition government headed by theUnionist leaderSikander Hyat Khan. The Akalis sat in opposition and made occasional forays into reaching an understanding with theMuslim League, which never reached fruition.[27]
In theprovincial election of 1946, the Akali Dal won 22 seats and joined the coalition government headed by the UnionistKhizar Hayat Khan Tiwana, along with theIndian National Congress. The Muslim League was unable to capture power, despite having won the largest number of seats, which perhaps suited it fine as it strengthened its Pakistan demand. The Muslim League launched a civil disobedience campaign, bringing down the Tiwana government by March 1947. The rest of the period till Indian independence was filled by Governor's Rule.[28]
As with other Sikh organisations,Master Tara Singh and his Akali Dalstrongly opposed the partition of India, which he thought would create an environment of possible persecution.[29]
In the 1950s, the party launched thePunjabi Suba movement, demanding a state with majority of Punjabi speaking people, out of undividedEast Punjab under the leadership ofSant Fateh Singh.[30] In 1966, the present Punjab was formed. Akali Dal came to power in the new Punjab in March 1967,[31] but early governments didn't live long due to internal conflicts and power struggles within the party. Later, party strengthened and party governments completed full term.
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa along with other Akali leaders came together at a Gurdwara inLudhiana on 7 July 2020 to re-establishSAD (D).Dhindsa was chosen as president of the revived political party. He claimedSAD (D) as the true Shiromani Akali Dal and that the one so called was taken over by the Badal family.[32]
Prior to this in late 2018, expelled senior members of Shiromani Akali DalRanjit Singh Brahmpura,Rattan Singh Ajnala,Sewa Singh Sekhwan, their relatives and others had formedSAD (T).[33] The reasoning of the expelling was due to their accusations of the Badal family steering Shiromani Akali Dal in the wrong path.
Ahead of the2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, bothSAD (T) andSAD (D) were dissolved to be merged together into a new political party by the name ofShiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt). This party entered into theNational Democratic Alliance to contest the Punjab elections alongside the candidates ofBharatiya Janata Party.[citation needed]
Shiromani Akali Dal's main goals are the protection of Sikh rights, Punjab's waters, and opposition to theSutlej Yamuna link canal.[34]
In 1996, at a historic conference in Moga, Shiromani Akali Dal adopted a moderate Punjabi agenda and shifted party headquarters fromAmritsar toChandigarh.[35]
Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | SAD (PS) |
| Leader | Giani Harpreet Singh |
| Founded | 11 August 2025 |
| Headquarters | 182/80 Industrial Area Phase I,Chandigarh, 160002 |
| Colours | Navy Blue |
On August 11, 2025, the breakaway faction of Shiromani Akali Dal was solidified as a separate political group through the unanimous election of formerJathedar of the Akal Takht, Giani Harpreet Singh, as the President of the faction. Bibi Satwant Kaur, the daughter ofSikh martyr, 'Bhai'Amrik Singh, was declared as the chairperson of the Panthic Council. This breakaway faction of Shiromani Akali Dal included multiple prominent leaders, such asPrem Singh Chandumajra,Bibi Jagir Kaur,Parminder Singh Dhindsa, and sittingMLAManpreet Singh Ayali.[36]
The early platform of this political group encompassed plans to address the issues ofShiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee elections, the release ofSikh political prisoners, and justice regardingGuru Granth Sahib desecration. Giani Harpreet Singh stated that the faction will attempt to get the faction registered byECI as the official 'Shiromani Akali Dal'.[37]
Following is the list of presidents of the party as given on the party website.
| S. No. | Name | Portrait | Term Start | Term End | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarmukh Singh Jhabal | -- | 17 February 1969 | 27 March 1970 | 1 year, 1 month, 10 days 405 days |
| 2 | Kharak Singh |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 3 | Master Tara Singh |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 4 | Gopal Singh Qaumi |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 5 | Tara Singh Thethar | -- | -- | -- | |
| 6 | Teja Singh Akarpuri |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 7 | Babu Labh Singh | -- | -- | -- | |
| 8 | Udham Singh Nagoke |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 9 | Giani Kartar Singh | -- | -- | -- | |
| 10 | Pritam Singh Gojran (Gujjran Sangrur) | -- | -- | -- | |
| 11 | Hukam Singh | -- | -- | -- | |
| 12 | Fateh Singh | -- | -- | -- | |
| 13 | Achar Singh | -- | -- | -- | |
| 14 | Bhupinder Singh | -- | -- | -- | |
| 15 | Mohan Singh Tur |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 16 | Jagdev Singh Talwandi |  | -- | -- | -- |
| 17 | Harchand Singh Longowal |  | -- | 20 August 1985 | -- |
| 18 | Surjit Singh Barnala |  | 27 September 1985 | 1996 | 11 years, 9 months, 15 days (4,291 days) |
| 19 | Parkash Singh Badal |  | 1996 | 2008 | 12 years (4,383 days) |
| 20 | Sukhbir Singh Badal |  | 2008 | 2024 | 16 years, 2 months (5,927 days) |
| 21 | Balwinder Singh Bhunder | 2024 | 2025 | 1 year, 2 months and 28 days (454 days) | |
| 22 | Sukhbir Singh Badal | | 12 April 2025 | Present | 7 months and 25 days |
| House | Current Members | Leader |
|---|---|---|
| Union Parliament | ||
| Lok Sabha | 1 | Harsimrat Kaur Badal |
| State Legislature | ||
| Punjab Legislative Assembly | 1 / 117 | Ganieve Kaur Majithia |
| Sr. No. | Portrait | Chief Minister | Constituency | In Office | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | |||||
| 1 | Gurnam Singh (1899–1973) | Qila Raipur | 17 February 1969 | 27 March 1970 | 1 year, 38 days | |
| 2 |  | Surjit Singh Barnala (1925–2017) | Barnala | 29 September 1985 | 11 June 1987 | 1 year, 255 days |
| 3 |  | Parkash Singh Badal (1927–2023) | Gidderbaha | 27 March 1970 | 14 June 1971 | 1 year, 79 days |
| 20 June 1977 | 17 February 1980 | 2 years, 242 days | ||||
| Lambi | 12 February 1997 | 26 February 2002 | 5 years, 14 days | |||
| 1 March 2007 | 14 March 2012 | 5 years, 13 days | ||||
| 14 March 2012 | 16 March 2017 | 5 years, 2 days | ||||
| Sr. No. | Name (constituency) (birth-death) | Portrait | Term of office | Chief Minister | Appointed by | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sukhbir Singh Badal ( - ) (born 1962) |  | 21 January 2009 | 1 July 2009 | 161 days | Prakash Singh Badal | S. F. Rodrigues |
| 2 | Sukhbir Singh Badal (Jalalabad) (born 1962) | 10 August 2009 | 14 March 2012 | 2 years, 217 days | |||
| 14 March 2012 | 16 March 2017 | 5 years, 2 days | Shivraj Patil | ||||
| General Elections Results | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | General Election | Seats Won | Change in # of Seats | Percentage of Vote | Vote Swing |
| 1945 | 6th Central Legislative Assembly | 2 |  | — | — |
| 1951 | 1st Lok Sabha | 4 |  2 | 0.99% | — |
| 1957 | 2nd Lok Sabha | 0 |  4 | — | — |
| 1962 | 3rd Lok Sabha | 3 | 3 | 0.72% | — |
| 1967 | 4th Lok Sabha | 3 | | — | — |
| 1971 | 5th Lok Sabha | 1 | 2 | 0.87% | — |
| 1977 | 6th Lok Sabha | 9 | 8 | 1.26% | — |
| 1980 | 7th Lok Sabha | 1 | 8 | 0.71% | — |
| 1984 | 8th Lok Sabha | 7 | 6 | 17.9% | — |
| 1989 | 9th Lok Sabha | 0 | 7 | — | — |
| 1991 | 10th Lok Sabha | 0 | | — | — |
| 1996 | 11th Lok Sabha | 8 | 8 | 0.76% | — |
| 1998 | 12th Lok Sabha | 8 | | 0.81% | — |
| 1999 | 13th Lok Sabha | 2 | 6 | 25.58% | — |
| 2004 | 14th Lok Sabha | 8 | 6 | 34.28% | — |
| 2009 | 15th Lok Sabha | 4 | 4 | 0.96% | — |
| 2014 | 16th Lok Sabha | 4 | | 20.30% | 13.55% |
| 2019 | 17th Lok Sabha | 2 | 2 | 27.45% | 13.9% |
| 2024 | 18th Lok Sabha | 1 | 1 | 13.42% | 14.03% |
| Legislative Assembly elections | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election Year | Leader | seats contested | seats won | +/- in seats | Overall votes | % of overall votes | +/- in vote share | Sitting side |
| 1937 | Master Tara Singh | 81 | 11 / 175 | | 1,788,856 | 5.58 | | Others |
| 1946 | Master Tara Singh | 81 | 20 / 175 | 9 | 3,550,212 | 10.94 | 5.36 | Others |
| Legislative Assembly elections | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election Year | Leader | seats contested | seats won | +/- in seats | Overall votes | % of overall votes | +/- in vote share | Sitting side |
| 1952 | Gopal Singh Khalsa | 48 | 13 / 126 | 13 | 620,455 | 12.44 | 12.44 | Opposition |
| 1957 | Contested with Congress and 28 Akali leaders won.[38] | |||||||
| 1962 | Gurnam Singh | 46 | 16 / 154 | 16 | 799,925 | 11.87 | 11.87 | Opposition |
| 1967 | Sant Fateh Singh(SFSG) | 59 | 24 / 104 | 24 | 871,742 | 20.48 | 20.48 | Opposition |
| Master Tara Singh(MTSG) | 61 | 2 / 104 | 2 | 178,746 | 4.20 | 4.20 | ||
| 1969 | Gurnam Singh | 65 | 43 / 104 | 43 | 1,381,916 | 29.36 | 29.36 | Government |
| 1972 | Jaswinder Singh Brar | 72 | 24 / 104 | 19 | 1,344,437 | 27.64 | 1.72 | Opposition |
| 1977 | Parkash Singh Badal | 70 | 58 / 117 | 34 | 1,776,602 | 31.41 | 3.8 | Government |
| 1980 | Harchand Singh Longowal | 73 | 37 / 117 | 21 | 1,683,266 | 26.92 | 4.49 | Opposition |
| 1985 | Surjit Singh Barnala | 100 | 73 / 117 | 23 | 2,630,270 | 38.01 | 11.09 | Government |
| 1992 | Boycotted the elections[39][40][41] | |||||||
| 1997 | Parkash Singh Badal | 92 | 75 / 117 | 75 | 3,873,099 | 37.64 | 37.64 | Government |
| 2002 | 41 / 117 | 34 | 3,196,924 | 31.08 | 6.56 | Opposition | ||
| 2007 | 93 | 48 / 117 | 7 | 4,689,018 | 37.09 | 6.01 | Government | |
| 2012 | 94 | 56 / 117 | 8 | 4,828,612 | 34.73 | 2.36 | Government | |
| 2017 | 15 / 117 | 41 | 3,898,161 | 25.2 | 9.4 | Others | ||
| 2022 | Sukhbir Singh Badal | 97 | 1 / 117 | 12 | 2,861,286 | 18.38 | 6.86 | Others |
| Legislative Assembly elections | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election Year | Leader | seats contested | seats won | +/- in seats | Overall votes | % of overall votes | +/- in vote share | Sitting side |
| 2009 | Charanjeet Kaur Mallour | 2 | 1 / 90 | | 9,490,092 | 0.98 | | Opposition |
| 2014 | Balkaur Singh | 5 | 1 / 90 | | 12,426,968 | 0.6 | 0.38 | Coalition |
| 2019 | Rajinder Singh Desujodha | 3 | 0 / 90 | 1 | 12,520,177 | 0.38 | 0.22 | Extra-parliamentary |
| Legislative Assembly elections | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election Year | Leader | seats contested | seats won | +/- in seats | Overall votes | % of overall votes | +/- in vote share | Sitting side |
| 2013 | Manjinder Singh Sirsa | 4 | 1 / 70 | | 7,699,800 | 1 | | Government |
| 2015 | Manjinder Singh Sirsa | 1 | 0 / 90 | 1 | 8,978,269 | 0.5 | 0.5 | Extra-parliamentary |
| Sr. No. | Name (constituency) (birth) | Portrait | Term of office | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarabjeet Singh Jhinjer ( - ) (born 1982) | 08 June 2023 | 16 July 2024 | 1 year, 38 days | |
The Bharatiya Kranti Dal(BKD) and the Akali Dal, two other right-wing parties...
The precursor to the present-day SAD was an organization established in December 1920 to help guide the quasi-militant Akali movement of the early 1920s, in which Sikhs demanded and (through the Sikh Gurdwara Act of 1925) won from the ruling British authorities in India control over the gurdwaras (Sikh houses of worship). The present-day SAD, which has claimed to be the oldest regional political party in India, has also controlled Sikh religious institutions such as the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and, more recently, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.
No sooner was it made public than the Sikhs launched a virulent campaign against the Lahore Resolution. Pakistan was portrayed as a possible return to an unhappy past when Sikhs were persecuted and Muslims the persecutor. Public speeches by various Sikh political leaders on the subject of Pakistan invariably raised images of atrocities committed by Muslims on Sikhs and of the martyrdom of theirgurus and heroes. Reactions to the Lahore Resolution were uniformly negative and Sikh leaders of all political persuasions made it clear that Pakistan would be 'wholeheartedly resisted'. The Shiromani Akali Dal, the party with a substantial following amongst the rural Sikhs, organized several well-attended conferences in Lahore to condemn the Muslim League. Master Tara Singh, leader of the Akali Dal, declared that his party would fight Pakistan 'tooth and nail'. Not be outdone, other Sikh political organizations, rival to the Akali Dal, namely the Central Khalsa Young Men Union and the moderate and loyalist Chief Khalsa Dewan, declared in equally strong language their unequivocal opposition to the Pakistan scheme.
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