More than two months after the Akal Takht declared him a “tankhaiya (guilty of violating Sikh religious code)”, former Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday resigned as Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president.

Badal who appointed senior leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder the party’s working president on August 29, a day before the Akal Takht announced its decision, submitted his resignation to the party’s working committee. The panel will hold an emergency meeting in Chandigarh on Monday. The party holds elections for the party president post every five years and the next one is scheduled to be held on December 14.

Announcing Badal’s decision, party spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema posted on X, “SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal submitted his resignation to the working committee of the party today to pave the way for the election of the new president. He thanked all the party leaders & workers for expressing confidence in his leadership and extending wholehearted support & cooperation throughout the tenure.”

Badal’s decision comes amid a simmering rebellion by a section of the party leadership and days after he urged the Akal Takht, the chief centre of religious authority in Sikhism, to expedite its decision on his punishment for the religious misconduct charges. The accusations are linked to the alleged mistakes that he made between 2007 and 2017 that the Akal Takht deemed had “deeply harmed the image of the Panth and caused damage to Sikh interests”. This included the failure to punish those responsible for the 2015 sacrilege incidents and pardoning Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 2007 blasphemy case.

Badal’s resignation puts the Akali Dal at a crossroads given that his family has been at its helm since 1996. Badal has increasingly faced challenges to his leadership as the party’s electoral footprint has rapidly shrunk, culminating in the record low of 2022 Assembly polls when it won just three seats. In the Lok Sabha elections this year, its vote share dropped from 27.5% in 2019 to 13.4%. It also won just one of the state’s 13 Lok Sabha seats.

In July, a group of rebels criticised the Akali Dal leadership for not implementing the recommendations of a six-member committee led by party leader Iqbal Singh Jhundan that visited 100 Assembly constituencies in the aftermath of the 2022 poll debacle. The rebels claimed that the report said that people in these seats wanted a change in leadership but the report’s proposals were not implemented. Among the dissidents are senior leaders Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, and Parminder Singh Dhindsa. The Akali Dal expelled these eight rebels in August, weeks after they formed a splinter group called the Akali Dal Sudhar Lehar.

Last month, when Badal participated in two dharnas against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, alleging that the ruling party was not allowing candidates to file nomination papers for panchayat polls, Sudhar Lehar leaders objected to the development. Later, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh clarified that the former Deputy CM was not allowed to participate in any political activity till his “tankhaiya” status remained in effect. The Akali Dal also decided against contesting the four Assembly bypolls scheduled to be held on November 20.

With this move, Badal will hope that the situation cools down. Welcoming Badal’s resignation, Gurpartap Singh Wadala said it was in line with “party workers’ sentiments” and urged the working committee of the party to “immediately accept” it. He warned that any political manoeuvring around the resignation — Badal could get re-elected as SAD president next month — would not be tolerated.

“A new strategy will be devised in consultation with Panthic and pro-party individuals and an important meeting of the Sudhar Lehar will be called to discuss Punjab’s current political scenario,” he said.

Defending Badal, Balwinder Singh Bhunder told The Indian Express,” Sukhbir Singh Badal, his father Parkash Singh Badal, and even Sukhbir’s grandfather have a history of fighting the system. During Sukhbir’s tenure, the state witnessed remarkable development in terms of road network, surplus power etc. In the present conditions, he resigned in the larger interest of the party. When in 2012, the SAD-BJP alliance created history by repeating its term in Punjab, Sukhbir was given all the credit. Hence, victories and losses are part of the life. Being the working president, I have called an emergency meeting of the working committee on November 18. The committee will consider the resignation and chart out the next course of action, including the conduct of elections for the new party president.”

Cheema explained that as part of this process, the party would first conduct a membership drive and then elect Circle delegates. These delegates will in turn choose the district delegates who will elect the state delegates. The state delegates, who will constitute the general house, will elect the president and office bearers as well as the new working committee of the party.

Badal started his political journey in 1996 when he was elected Faridkot MP. He lost the seat in 1999 and went to Parliament as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2001. He served as Union Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 2004, Sukhbir retook Faridkot. Five years later, he returned to state politics by winning the Jalalabad bypoll and served as Deputy CM from August 2009 to March 2017. During his tenure as Akali Dal president, the SAD-BJP alliance won the 2012 elections but the two parties broke their alliance during the

But with the party’s electoral graph dipping, he started facing constant challenges to his leadership and the party underwent several splits, with splinter groups such as SAD (Taksali) and SAD (Sanyukt) coming up in 2018 and 2020, respectively.