There was a time when five close members of the Badal family were in the government headed by Parkash Singh Badal. That was probably when the Akali Dal was at the peak of its political glory (in terms of political power). The decline of the party has corresponded with the disintegration of the family.
While the senior Badal was the Chief Minister, his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, nephew Manpreet Singh Badal, son-in-law Adesh Partap Singh Badal and Sukhbir’s brother in law (his wife’s brother) Bikram Singh Majithia were all in the Badal cabinet.
The power remained concentrated with the “clan”. However, after the succession battle started and Manpreet rebelled, realising that it was Sukhbir who was going to inherit Badal’s legacy, the first signs of the family’s collapse started. Manpreet initially posed a formidable challenge to his uncle and cousin after forming the People’s Party of Punjab. While in the beginning his party received a phenomenal response, it faced drubbings at the hustings and could not even open its account in the Punjab legislative assembly.
Current Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had also joined the PPP and contested against Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhattal from Lehragaga assembly segment. That was his formal initiation into electoral politics. He later joined the nascent Aam Aadmi Party that had been formed about two years ago and was elected to the parliament from Sangrur parliamentary constituency in 2014. His rise continued and in 2022; he led the party to a phenomenal victory becoming the Chief Minister.
Manpreet’s exit did not hit the Akali Dal at all. Rather, his being in the contest helped the Akali Dal to return to power in alliance with the BJP for the second consecutive term as his (Manpreet’s) PPP ended up dividing the anti-Akali votes.
Meanwhile, the Akali Dal had passed on into the hands of Sukhbir who was now in total command and control after having been appointed president of the party. It was his will that ran in the party as well as the government. His brother-in-law, Adesh Partap Singh Kairon, started feeling sidelined.
Sukhbir’s another brother-in-law (his wife’s brother) Bikram Singh Majithia assumed more control over the party and the government.
The senior Badal did not like it. He once even snubbed Majithia publicly although in a lighter vein. But the import of the message of his “joke” on Majithia was not lost on anyone. This, however, did not deter or discourage Majithia from calling the shots in the party as well as the government with due patronage from his brother-in-law Sukhbir. He indeed did rally behind a considerable section of the youth around himself, which turned out to be the strength of the party.
As the senior Badal expired and the party’s decline continued, Kairon distanced himself further from Sukhbir. Eventually he was expelled from the party before 2024 General Elections after the party candidate Virsa Singh Valtoha complained against him that he was working against the party.
Bikram Singh Majithia, who has since emerged as a strong leader of the Akali Dal, is currently in jail in a case of disproportionate assets registered against him by the Aam Aadmi Party government.
Sukhbir is literally alone right now in the party. His wife and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, although an articulate and aggressive speaker, does not have much organisational skills or experience.
While Sukhbir and Manpreet have reached a rapprochement on personal level, they still remain politically apart. Manpreet after his aborted PPP experience had ended up with the Congress and became the Finance Minister in 2017. He later resigned from the party and has joined the BJP. Recently, he shared the dais with Sukhbir to mark the birth anniversary of late Parkash Singh Badal. He does not seem to be very keen to return to the Akali Dal at this stage.
When Manpreet contested the Gidderbaha assembly by-election in 2024 as a BJP candidate, the Akali Dal had not fielded a candidate. Sukhbir was inclined to support him, but was prevented from doing so by his wife, Harsimrat. Eventually, the Akali cadres voted for the AAP candidate, Dimpy Dhillon, who was also a former Akali and once close to the Badal family.
Reuniting the family, particularly getting his cousin Manpreet and brother in law Kairon back into the party looks highly unlikely for Sukhbir. So does reuniting the party. Like his family members, some of his close associates who rose to become leaders mainly due to Sukhbir’s patronage like Surjit Singh Rakhra and Manpreet Singh Ayali to name just a few, do not seem to be keen on returning to the Akali fold.
As former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Capt. Amarinder Singh has sparked off a debate suggesting his party’s alliance with the Akali Dal, the party (Akali Dal) itself remains divided and splintered. Sukhbir has a challenging task ahead both on the family as well as the party front.
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