Shiromani Akali Dal

For other uses, see Shiromani Akali Dal (disambiguation).

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: Supreme Eternal Party^[19]) is a centre-right Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Congress, being founded in 1920.^[20][21][22] Although there are many parties with the description Akali Dal, the party that is recognized as "Shiromani Akali Dal" by the Election Commission of India is the one led by Sukhbir Singh Badal. The party has a moderate Punjabi agenda.^[23] On 26 September 2020, it left the National Democratic Alliance over the farm bills.^[24]

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] to right-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 Lok Sabha	1 / 543
Seats in Rajya Sabha	0 / 245
Seats in Punjab Legislative Assembly	3 / 117
Election symbol
Website
www.shiromaniakalidal.com
Politics of India Political parties Elections

History

British India

Further information: Akali movement

Poster released in 1921 by the Secretary Akali Dal, appealing to all Akali factions to unite or face extinction, Amritsar, circa June 1921. Digitized by the Panjab Digital Library.

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 under Master Tara Singh.^[25] Akali movement influenced 30 new Punjabi newspapers launched between 1920 and 1925.^[26]

In the provincial election of 1937, the Akali Dal won 10 seats. The Khalsa Nationalists won 11 seats and joined the coalition government headed by the Unionist leader Sikander Hyat Khan. The Akalis sat in opposition and made occasional forays into reaching an understanding with the Muslim League, which never reached fruition.^[27]

In the provincial election of 1946, the Akali Dal won 22 seats and joined the coalition government headed by the Unionist Khizar Hayat Khan Tiwana, along with the Indian 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 Dal strongly opposed the partition of India, which he thought would create an environment of possible persecution.^[29]

Post Independence India

In the 1950s, the party launched the Punjabi Suba movement, demanding a state with majority of Punjabi speaking people, out of undivided East Punjab under the leadership of Sant 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.

Modern Factions

Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa along with other Akali leaders came together at a Gurdwara in Ludhiana on 7 July 2020 to re-establish SAD (D). Dhindsa was chosen as president of the revived political party. He claimed SAD (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 Dal Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Rattan Singh Ajnala, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, their relatives and others had formed SAD (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 the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, both SAD (T) and SAD (D) were dissolved to be merged together into a new political party by the name of Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt). This party entered into the National Democratic Alliance to contest the Punjab elections alongside the candidates of Bharatiya Janata Party.^{[citation needed]}

Ideology

Shiromani Akali Dal's main goals are the protection of Sikh rights, Punjab's waters, and opposition to the Sutlej Yamuna link canal.^[34]

1996 Moga Conference

In 1996, at a historic conference in Moga, Shiromani Akali Dal adopted a moderate Punjabi agenda and shifted party headquarters from Amritsar to Chandigarh.^[35]

Party Presidents

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	7 months and 26 days (238 days)
22	Sukhbir Singh Badal		12 April 2025	Present	(1 day)

Current Members in Houses

House	Current Members	Leader
Union Parliament
Lok Sabha	1	Harsimrat Kaur Badal
State Legislature
Punjab Legislative Assembly	3 / 117	Manpreet Singh Ayali

List of Union Leaders

No.	Portrait	Name	Term in office		Duration	Portfolio	Prime Minister
1		Parkash Singh Badal	26 March 1977	27 March 1977	1 day	Minister of Communications	Morarji Desai
			28 March 1977	17 June 1977	81 days	Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
2		Surjit Singh Barnala	18 June 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 40 days
			19 March 1998	13 October 1999	1 year, 208 days	Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
					Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs
3		Sukhbir Singh Badal	20 March 1998	13 October 1999	1 year, 207 days	Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry
4		Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa	22 November 1999	26 November 1999	4 days	Minister of Works and Estates (Merged with Ministry of Urban Development)
			7 November 2000	22 May 2004	3 years, 197 days	Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
			27 May 2000	7 November 2000	164 days	Minister of Mines
			2 February 2000	7 November 2000	279 days	Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports
5		Harsimrat Kaur Badal	27 May 2014	30 May 2019	5 years, 3 days	Minister of Food Processing Industries	Narendra Modi
			31 May 2019	18 September 2020	1 year, 110 days

Punjab Chief Ministers Belonging to Akali Dal

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	16 March 2017	10 years, 15 days

List of Deputy Chief Ministers

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

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%

In state elections

Punjab Provincial Assembly Elections

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

Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections

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.[36]
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[37][38][39]
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	3 / 117	12	2,861,286	18.38	6.86	Others

Haryana Legislative Assembly Elections

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

Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections

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	Opposition

Core Committee

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

See also

• Splinter groups of the Akali Dal
• Sikhism
• Tara Singh
• Babu Labh Singh
• Akali (disambiguation)
• Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt)
• List of political parties in India