sukhbir: Sukhbir Badal to continue to lead Akali Dal despite poll debacle | India News

NEW DELHI: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday offered to resign as the head of the party but the offer was rejected as other leaders expressed confidence in his leadership.
In a series of tweets, the SAD said that a meeting was held in Chandigarh where party leaders delved in to the reasons of the stunning debacle of the party that has dominated Punjab’s political landscape.
For a party that ruled Punjab for a decade before Congress came to power in 2017, the SAD has now just three seats in the state assembly. In the assembly elections 2022, the Aam Aadmi Party has won a brute majority of 92 seats while top leaders of Akali Dal and Congress lost from their bastions.
Sukhbir Badal lost from his Jalalabad seat while his father five-time-chief minister Parkash Singh Badal lost from the Lambi assembly seat. Sukhbir Singh Badal’s brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia also lost from Amritsar (east). All these seats were won by AAP.
“S. Sukhbir Singh Badal today owned moral responsibility for the party’s defeat in Assembly polls & offered his resignation which was firmly rejected by all district presidents. A formal resolution was also passed unanimously to express complete confidence in his leadership,” the party said in a tweet.

It added that Sukhbir Singh Badal led from the front and also inspired the entire cadre to give its best.
“Though results were not as per expectations, he can’t be blamed for that. People voted for change and the entire opposition was swept aside in the resultant tsunami: District presidents,” the party said in another tweet.

The party has the ability to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and our president Sukhbir Singh Badal will play a lead role in this”, announced the senior leadership of Shiromani Akali Dal, after holding a detailed meeting at party head office in Chandigarh.

The party also said that it had appointed Manpreet Singh Ayali (MLA Dakha) as leader of Akali Dal legislative party and Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi (MLA Banga) as its chief whip in the state assembly.