Surjit Singh Rakhra

Surjit Singh Rakhra is a Punjab politician from Samana in Patiala district. He is a living public figure, and everything below is drawn from news reports and election records.

The Tribune describes him as long a prominent Shiromani Akali Dal leader and a close confidant of former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and as a two-time MLA from Samana. Wikipedia records wins at Samana in 2002 and 2012 on an Akali Dal ticket, and portfolios in the 2012 to 2017 Badal government of Water Supply and Sanitation and of Higher Education and Languages. The Tribune adds that in earlier Akali governments he held the Revenue and Rehabilitation ministries. These are not in conflict: they are different spells in office. He contested the Patiala Lok Sabha seat in 2019 and lost to Preneet Kaur of the Congress.

Key moments

• 30 July 2024: the Akali Dal's disciplinary committee expelled eight rebel leaders, Rakhra among them, with Prem Singh Chandumajra, Bibi Jagir Kaur, Gurpartap Singh Wadala, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Surinder Singh Thekedar and Charanjit Singh Brar. The party cited "anti-party activities." The revolt had begun in June 2024 after the party's poor Lok Sabha result in Punjab, when rebels demanded that Sukhbir Singh Badal step down as president (PTI, via The Week).
• Later, after distancing himself from Sukhbir Singh Badal, he joined Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit), the breakaway faction led by Giani Harpreet Singh (The Tribune).
• May 2026: the Giani Harpreet Singh-led faction expelled him for "anti-party" activities. On 16 May 2026 he joined the Aam Aadmi Party in Patiala in the presence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann (The Tribune, PTI).

His exit was followed within days by that of MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali, who also left Punar Surjit. Ayali said in a video statement that leaders who had "lost the moral right" to stay in Akali politics after the Akal Takht hukamnama were still accommodated in the new faction; the report does not name Rakhra in that statement (Asia Samachar, 22 May 2026).

He is remembered in Panthic politics as a senior Badal-era Akali who broke with Sukhbir Singh Badal, passed through the breakaway movement of 2024 to 2026, and ended in the ruling party ahead of the 2027 election.