Jathedar Santa Singh Umaidpuri

Jathedar Santa Singh Umaidpuri, whose name the press also spells Umaidpur, is an Akali leader who came to wider notice in December 2024, when Sri Akal Takht Sahib named him to the seven-member committee it set up to rebuild the Shiromani Akali Dal. He is alive and active, so everything below is taken from newspaper reports.

Key moments

• 2 December 2024: while pronouncing tankhah on Sukhbir Badal and other Akali leaders for their conduct in office from 2007 to 2017, the Akal Takht announced a committee to oversee a six-month membership drive and the election of a new party president. Its members were Harjinder Singh Dhami, Kirpal Singh Badungar, Iqbal Singh Jhundan, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Manpreet Singh Ayali, Santa Singh Umaidpuri and Bibi Satwant Kaur.
• 16 January 2025: with Wadala he met Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh, saying the Akali leadership was defying the Takht's edict. On the Jathedar's orders they also gave a letter to Dhami, who headed the committee, asking him to call a meeting of it.
• February 2025: Dhami and Badungar quit the committee. The five who remained, Umaidpuri among them, carried on, and Ayali said the Akal Takht was the supreme authority for them.
• 11 August 2025: a delegate session at Gurdwara Burj Akali Phoola Singh, Amritsar, elected Giani Harpreet Singh president of a breakaway Akali Dal. The Tribune reports that the poll was held under Umaidpuri's supervision, as election officer appointed after the Election Commission was notified.
• July 2026: the Punjabi Tribune described him as senior vice-president and core committee member of Akali Dal (Punar Surjit). In a report of 27 July 2026 the paper said he had led a meeting at Gurdwara Reru Sahib, Sahnewal, where leaders said that Akali politics had strayed from the agenda of the Panth and Punjab because of the personal ambition of leaders. They sent their resignations to party president Giani Harpreet Singh, and said their next step would be decided with Panthic and political leaders and the sangat. Former MLA Master Johar Singh and others joined the resignations.

Why he matters to this record. His path shows how an Akal Takht committee, formed to oversee the Akali Dal, ended as the body that produced a rival Akali Dal, and how some of its members then walked away from that party in turn.