CHANDIGARH: With just less than four months left for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, and a day after the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) reiterated that it would not join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiromani Akali Dal, led by Sukhbir Singh Badal or its breakaway factions, the party’s representatives today joined several farmer unions, Panthic organisations, ex-servicemen’s bodies, trade groups and pensioners’ associations to form a common political platform, Sanyukt Punjab Morcha, in Ludhiana.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit), United Akali Dal, Begampura Khalsa Raj Party, Sant Samaj, Kirti Kisan Union, Krantikari Bharatiya Kisan Union, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Fateh), Kisan Union Khosa, NREGA Workers’ Front, ex-servicemen’s organisations and pensioners’ bodies.
A nine-member committee consisting of Bhai Gurdeep Singh Bathinda, Gobind Singh Longowal, Gurinder Singh Bajwa, Balwinder Singh Ferozepur, Jugraj Singh Tallewal, Shamsher Singh Assi, Nirbhai Singh Dhudike and Dr Darshan Pal was constituted to reach out to other Panthic organisations, farmer unions, labour groups, Sant Samaj and public organisations across Punjab.
It will announce the issues for the proposed agitation and the organisational structure of the morcha on November 23. It was also decided that no member of the morcha’s presidium or any member of their family would contest the elections.
The alliance has announced its intention to contest the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections together and launch joint agitations over issues concerning the state.
The Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) faction, formed on August 11, 2025, under the leadership of former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, emerged from a rebellion within the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal. It was born out of discontent over Badal’s leadership, the alleged sidelining of senior Panthic leaders and the handling of directives issued by the Akal Takht.
This outfit had pledged to restore the traditional Panthic ethos of the Akali movement and pursue key community issues, including justice in cases of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, the release of Sikh political prisoners and reforms in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
But this faction is now grappling with the very challenges it had promised to overcome, as differences within the Akali leadership and the inability to bring Panthic organisations onto a common platform threaten its political stability.
Meanwhile, yesterday, addressing a meeting of party leaders and workers at Reru Sahib, Sahnewal, Akali Dal Punar Surjit president Giani Harpreet Singh said, “If the BJP enters into an agreement with the SAD, we will consider it anti-Sikh and strongly oppose it. There cannot be any reconciliation with leaders who went against the directions of the Akal Takht and the Panthic cause. We have never spoken of a political partnership with the BJP; we have always put forward the issues of the Panth and Punjab,” he added.
