Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De)

What it is: Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) is the electoral party that came out of Waris Punjab De, the organisation Deep Sidhu founded in 2021 and Amritpal Singh later led. The two are separate bodies; Waris Punjab De has its own page. Wikipedia says the party is not registered with the Election Commission of India.

How it began: On 29 September 2024 Amritpal Singh’s father, Tarsem Singh, announced at Akal Takht that a party would follow (Wikipedia). It was launched on 14 January 2025 at Maghi in Sri Muktsar Sahib. The Tribune reports that Amritpal Singh, then held in Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, was appointed mukh sewadar under a 15-point Sri Muktsar Sahib declaration, and that a five-member executive committee, including Tarsem Singh and the Faridkot MP Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, was to build the organisation. It said it was committed to reforms empowering Sikh institutions.

Key moments

• 14 November 2025, Tarn Taran by-election: Mandeep Singh, the candidate it backed, finished third with 19,620 votes. AAP’s Harmeet Singh Sandhu won by 12,091 votes over the Akali Dal.
• April to 17 May 2026: talks with the Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) on a joint front, run through an eight-member Panthic Unity Coordination Committee formed on 18 April, collapsed on 17 May. The committee cited differences on basic and ideological issues and the Akal Takht’s edict of 2 December 2024; Punar Surjit’s Sucha Singh Chhotepur said the other side never raised it.
• 9 June 2026: Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali joined the party in Chandigarh; the Tribune says that, because it is unregistered, he remained an Akali Dal MLA for the time being. He said he would work for the release of Amritpal Singh and the Bandi Singhs by democratic means and ruled out a BJP alliance.
• 21 July and 13 August 2026: on 21 July the former MLA Iqbal Singh Jhundan held a joint press conference with the party backing a united Panthic movement under Amritpal Singh. PTI reported that the Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) then expelled him for six years for anti-party activities; the Tribune says he quit. He was formally inducted on 13 August, nearly three weeks after he left, the Tribune says.
• 9 October 2026: the party named a discussion and agenda committee, chaired by Jhundan, to draft its future agenda.

Where it stands: The party’s two Lok Sabha members, Amritpal Singh (Khadoor Sahib) and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa (Faridkot), won in 2024 as independents. Its aim is the 2027 Punjab Assembly election: at Ayali’s joining Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the day marked the start of the campaign for it.