Amritsar, October 29: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday said he is ready to step down if the party wants it.
“I’m leading the party on its direction. I’am duty bound to do whatever the party asks me to do. If it demands my resignation, I am ready for it,” Sukhbir said.
Sukhbir said this while replying to a question on the banner of revolt raised by veteran SAD leaders from the Majha region.
Sukhbir paid obeisance at the Golden Temple on Sunday and visited dissident SAD leader Bhai Manjit Singh at his residence along with Majitha MLA Bikram Singh Majithia.
Earlier, veteran leader and Lok Sabha MP Ranjit Singh Brahmpura had resigned from all party posts on health grounds.
The Khadoor Sahib MP was the second senior leader to quit the party posts within a month after Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa resigned as party secretary general, also on health grounds.
A day after Dhindsa resigned on September 30, Brahmpura, Ajnala and former minister and SGPC member Sewa Singh Sekhwan had virtually raised a banner of revolt saying “all was not well within the party.”
Sukhbir Badal is facing rebellion from the senior SAD leadership including Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, former MP Ratan Singh Ajnala, former minister Sewa Singh Sekhwan and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa after the Ranjit panel report on sacrilege incidents and over his initiative that led to the former Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh’s pardon to Sirsa Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in the blasphemy case.
Badal, who is “facing heat” from a section within the party over his style of running the SAD, had earlier said the party was not a “property” of the Badal family and somebody else could represent it after a few years.
The Ranjit panel report, which was tabled in the Punjab assembly in August had concluded that the Akal Takht pardon to Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim in a blasphemy case was secured by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and it played the role of a catalyst in sacrilege incidents.
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