Muktsar Sahib, January 14, 2025 (Punjab Khabarnama Bureau): The stage is set for a political tug-of-war through Maghi Mela conferences on Tuesday to capture the Panthic space once dominated by Punjab’s former ruling party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
While SAD will try to arrest its decline through a show of strength at one of Punjab’s most important religious occasions, jailed Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha MP Amritpal Singh’s supporters are set to launch their political outfit — Shiromani Akali Dal (Anandpur Sahib).
Former Sangrur MP Simranjit Singh Mann-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) will also be holding a rally on the occasion.
The SAD conference will be the first major political event to be held by the party after the Akal Takht —the highest temporal seat for the Sikhs — indicted its former chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and several leaders for religious misconduct during the party rule from 2007-17.
In a punishing decree pronounced by five Sikh high priests on December 2, the party was told to launch a six-month reorganisation drive and accept Sukhbir’s resignation from the SAD president’s post.
Though the party accepted Sukhbir’s resignation with much reluctance and delay on January 10, it rejected the seven-member panel constituted by the Takht to oversee the restructuring drive, citing legal and constitutional complications.
Sukhbir, who hasn’t yet spoken publicaly over the Takht edict, will be addressing the party rank and file.
Earlier in the run-up to the event, he had urged SAD workers to throng Muktsar rally venue in large numbers.
He had also claimed innocence in cases involving the desecration of religious texts during his party’s coalition government in 2015 saying their rivals levelled “false allegations” against him.
The statement made earlier this month came weeks after he submitted through a letter an unconditional apology to the Akal Takht for the mistakes committed during his party’s decade-long rule over issues concerning the community.
The later part of the SAD regime, which ruled in alliance with the BJP, was marked by incidents of desecration of religious texts and subsequent police firing on protesters that resulted in the death of two persons in 2015.
Meanwhile, the party has put up a large number of hoardings here, with Sukhbir’s photos occupying larger space than that of SAD’s acting chief Balwinder Singh Bhunder.
The SAD rally will be held at the SGPC ground on Malout Road here.
Supporters of the Khalistan sympathiser and Khadoor Sahib MP too have made preparations for a rally at a wedding resort opposite the District Police Lines on Bathinda Road.
They have kept their ‘pandal’ open and erected a stage in the parking lot of the resort.
With a formal launch of the party, which will be headed by jailed MP’s father Tarsem Singh, they will try to win over the Sikh voters those have drifted away from SAD in recent years.
Tarsem Singh has already stressed on the need for a new regional outfit in the state while criticising SAD for “abandoning” its principles and failing to “protect” the Sikh and Punjabi identity.
The rally by the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) will be held at Dera Bhai Mastan Singh near the historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.
On the other hand, AAP state chief Aman Arora and some other Punjab ministers are expected to offer prayers at the gurdwara on Tuesday. BJP leaders said they will pay obeisance at local gurdwaras on Maghi Day.
Meanwhile, all gurdwaras have been decked up for the two-day Maghi Mela starting Tuesday.
The police have converted the town into a fortress. Maghi Mela is organised every year to commemorate 40 ‘Muktas’ (liberated ones), who laid down their lives while fighting the Mughals in 1705 here.
Summary: The stage is set for a political face-off at Muktsar’s Maghi Mela, with leaders gearing up for intense discussions and debates.