Sukhbir Singh Badal

Sukhbir Singh Badal is the president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the son of Parkash Singh Badal, who handed him the party's reins. He served as Deputy Chief Minister under his father. In 2024 the Akal Takht declared him tankhaiya over the record of the SAD governments of 2007 to 2017. He is a living politician, and what is said of him below is attributed to the outlets and bodies that said it.

Key moments

• 1 July 2024: dissident Akali leaders wrote to the Akal Takht accusing him of violating a 2007 edict against the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, and citing the 2007 pardon over the imitation of Guru Gobind Singh, the sacrilege incidents of 2015 in Faridkot, and the police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan. On 24 July he took responsibility in writing for unspecified mistakes.
• 30 August 2024: five Singh Sahiban, convened by Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh at the Akal Takht secretariat, unanimously declared him tankhaiya over the "mistakes" of the SAD and its government from 2007 to 2017, until he appeared before the Takht as a humble Sikh.
• November 2024: he resigned as party president, but the SAD working committee had not accepted the resignation by December.
• 2 December 2024: the Akal Takht pronounced his tankhah. He was to do sewadar service at the Golden Temple, clean utensils and shoes, sit outside in sewadar dress holding a spear, wear boards acknowledging his misdeeds, and serve for two days each at Takht Kesgarh Sahib, Takht Damdama Sahib, Muktsar and Fatehgarh Sahib. PTI reported that he admitted pardoning the Dera chief in 2007 and calling the then jathedars to his residence for it, and acknowledged failures over the 2015 sacrilege and the firings. The Takht said the SAD leadership had lost its moral right to lead the politics of the Sikh Panth, directed that his resignation be accepted and party elections held within six months, and withdrew the Fakhr-e-Qaum title given to Parkash Singh Badal in 2011.
• October 2026: as SAD chief heading into the 2027 Assembly election, he told a television interviewer, the Tribune reported, that he was open to an alliance with like-minded parties, and ruled out the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress. Gurpartap Singh Wadala of SAD (Punar Surjit) confirmed talks but said Sukhbir should first step down as president.

Opposition within the Panth. The dissident Akali leaders who petitioned the Akal Takht in 2024 were later expelled, the Tribune reported. A breakaway group, SAD (Punar Surjit), is led by Giani Harpreet Singh, and ThePrint reported in August 2026 that Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), the party of Amritpal Singh, aims to contest the SAD directly for the Panthic vote.

Known for: leading the SAD through its 2007 to 2017 governments and the defeat that followed, and the 2024 tankhaiya declaration, in which the Akal Takht said the party leadership had lost its moral right to lead the politics of the Sikh Panth.