Shiromani Akali Dal

What it is: The Shiromani Akali Dal is the oldest Sikh political party and, with the Congress, one of the oldest parties in India. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the generally accepted founding date is 14 December 1920, when activists met in front of the Akal Takht, two days after the first meeting of the SGPC. The title “Shiromani” was added by a Dal resolution on 29 March 1922. Sarmukh Singh Jhabal (also spelled Chubbal) was named its first jathedar, or president. It was meant to work under the SGPC’s control. After 1925 it became an independent political party that sought to control the SGPC through elections, and the Encyclopaedia says that control has been “complete and continuous”.

Leaders, in order: Sarmukh Singh Jhabal; Baba Kharak Singh, who led it with Master Tara Singh after the 1926 elections and in 1930 resigned and formed a rival Central Akali Dal that faded after 1947; Master Tara Singh, who took the presidency in 1930 and led Sikh politics for about three decades; Sant Fateh Singh, who set up a rival Dal in 1962 and later led the Punjabi Suba campaign; Jagdev Singh Talwandi (1978 to 1980); Sant Harchand Singh Longowal (1980 to August 1985); Surjit Singh Barnala (from September 1985); Parkash Singh Badal (1996 to 2008); and Sukhbir Singh Badal (2008 to the present, with a break in 2024 and 2025).

Its part in this history: The Dal took part in the morchas of the 1920s, was declared unlawful with the SGPC on 12 October 1923, and won 10 of the 14 Sikh seats it contested in 1937. It opposed Partition and put forward an Azad Punjab scheme. On 17 March 1948 its working committee advised its legislators to join the Congress. After 1947 it campaigned for a Punjabi-speaking state; Punjab was formed on 1 November 1966. Its working committee adopted the Anandpur Sahib Resolution on 16 and 17 October 1973. In 1982 its Dharam Yudh agitation moved to Amritsar on 4 August, and Bhindranwale merged his own morcha with it. It signed the Rajiv-Longowal accord in July 1985, won the elections that followed and formed a government under Barnala. The party then split three ways: Badal, Longowal (Barnala) and Mann. In 1996 a Moga conference opened membership to non-Sikhs for the first time, and the Dal allied with the BJP and won the 1997 election. Badal governed from 2007 to 2017, a term the Tribune says was marked by the 2015 sacrilege incidents, the Behbal Kalan firing and the Akal Takht’s handling of the Ram Rahim pardon.

Key moments

• 26 September 2020: the Dal left the NDA over the farm laws, ending the alliance with the BJP.
• 2022 and 2024: it won three Assembly seats in 2022 and, in 2024, one of Punjab’s 13 Lok Sabha seats, Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s, with about 13 per cent of the vote (The Wire).
• 30 August and 2 December 2024: the Akal Takht declared Sukhbir Badal tankhaiya and pronounced his tankhah. Sukhbir resigned as president on 16 November 2024, and on 12 April 2025 about 500 delegates re-elected him unopposed.
• 11 August 2025: a delegate session at Gurdwara Burj Akali Phoola Singh, Amritsar, elected former jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh president of a breakaway faction, later called Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit).

Where it stands: There are now at least three Akali parties of note: the Sukhbir Badal party, which Wikipedia says the Election Commission recognises as the Shiromani Akali Dal; the Punar Surjit breakaway; and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) of Simranjit Singh Mann, which came out of the 1980s splits. The Tribune notes that it won only three Assembly seats in 2022. The next Punjab Assembly election is due in 2027.