Since its foundation in December 1920, the Akali Dal has had multiple divisions. Sometimes, nearly half a dozen factions have existed simultaneously.
Professor Bhupinder Singh, with the department of political science, DAV College, Ambala, writes in a research paper that generally, “whenever Akalis are out of power, they quarrel with each other, but when they are in power, they quarrel with others”.
Akali Dal early splits: 1925, 1928
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) was formed in November 1920 during the Gurdwara Reform Movement to make the Sikh shrines independent. A month later, Shiromani Akali Dal, initially known as the Gurudwara Sewak Dal, was created as the SGPC task force.
Historian Amarjit Singh Narang writes in his seminal work, Region, Religion, and Politics: 100 Years of Shiromani Akali Dal, that the creation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was to coordinate the efforts of volunteers or Akalis, who followed local leaders. Then, the political party, Central Sikh League, came into existence in 1919, led by one of SGPC’s founders, Baba Kharak Singh. The party had leaders who were common to both SGPC and SAD.
Historian Mohinder Singh writes that right after the passing of the Sikh Gurdwaras and Shrines Bill in 1925, a legislation that empowered the SGPC, there was a split between the moderate SGPC leaders, Sardar Bahadur Mehtab Singh and Giani Sher Singh, and the extremist ones, Baba Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh, over the manner of the passing of the bill. All the leaders were in Lahore jail since October 1923, when the British administration declared SGPC an unlawful organisation. The extremist SGPC leaders looked down upon the moderate group for negotiating their release with the British.
The Akal Takht then intervened to unite the Central Sikh League, with Baba Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh in the party, and the Shiromani committee group, also known as the Sardar Bahadur party, with leaders such as Mehtab Singh and Giani Sher Singh.
“But real unity,” writes historian Mohinder Singh, “was never again achieved.”
The Akali Dal underwent another early split in 1928 due to differences in opinions among leaders over the proposals in the Motilal Nehru Committee report. The report recommended the abolition of separate communal representation, with the introduction of mixed electorates.
“But the report did not mention anything about the reservation of seats for any community in Punjab and Bengal, leading to the division of the Akali Dal into three factions led by Baba Kharak Singh, Mangal Singh Gill, and Master Tara Singh,” said Professor Kanwalpreet Kaur, who is with the political science department at the DAV College in Chandigarh’s Sector 10, speaking to ThePrint.
Mangal Singh Gill was part of the Nehru committee and supported its report. In his reaction to the Nehru report, Baba Kharak Singh called for a boycott of the upcoming 1929 Congress session in Lahore. Master Tara Singh was opposed to the Nehru report, as well, but did not, however, approve of the boycott of the Congress session.
The two leaders, Kharak Singh and Master Tara Singh, also differed in their opinions over joining the 1930 Civil Disobedience Movement against the British Raj. Baba Kharak Singh, the then-president of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, was against the Sikhs joining the movement since the national flag did not have the saffron colour yet, representing the Sikh community. Master Tara Singh was not in favour of an outright rejection of the movement.
Akali Dal vs Central Akali Dal
“There was now a vertical split in the Akali Dal. Baba Kharak Singh accused the SAD of ‘surrender’ to the Congress and resigned from the post of the president of SGPC and Central Sikh League and left SAD along with some others. Master Tara Singh took over as the president of the SAD and the SGPC and remained at the helm of affairs for the next three decades,” writes historian Amarjit Singh Narang.
“Baba Kharak Singh, later in March 1934, formed a new party that was initially called ‘Sikh National League’ and then renamed ‘Central Akali Dal’. The ‘Central Akali Dal’, which remained active till 1947, could never garner mass support, and SAD continued to be the representative of the Sikh mainstream,” Narang writes further.
The differences between the Akali Dal under Master Tara Singh and the Central Akali Dal under Baba Kharak Singh and Giani Sher Singh continued for years, resurfacing in the early 1940s. The latter opposed Master Tara Singh’s Azad Punjab campaign for the adjustment of Punjab’s boundaries, aimed at taking out the Hindu or Sikh majority areas from the Muslim League’s outline of Pakistan.
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Tara Singh vs Fateh Singh
During the Punjabi Suba movement, which started in 1947, the Akalis launched a campaign for a Punjabi Suba, or Punjabi-speaking state.
A decade-and-a-half later, the party split into two distinct groups—one led by Master Tara Singh, and the other by Sant Fateh Singh—in 1962. Later, an aged Master Tara Singh ended his opposition to Sant Fateh Singh in 1965, followed by the re-organisation of Punjab on a unilingual basis in 1966.
J.S. Grewal writes in his book, The Akalis, A Short History, that the Congress failed to secure a majority in the assembly in the 1967 elections, and other parties were willing to form a coalition government with the Sant Fateh Singh-led Akali group.
Justice Gurnam Singh formed the first non-Congress government, also known as the People’s United Front government, in March 1967.
However, the government fell in November 1967, chiefly because the Congress gave its support to another Akali leader, Lachman Singh Gill, who aspired to replace Gurnam Singh. On 22 November 1967, Lachman Singh Gill took over as CM on the same day that Master Tara Singh passed away. But, soon after, the Gill-led government also fell in August 1968. Then, Punjab came under President’s rule, barely two years after the reorganisation of “joint Punjab”, including Punjab and Haryana.
Tohra-Talwandi vs Badal
Following Master Tara Singh’s death, the two Akali groups joined hands in 1968, months before the mid-term polls, which the Akalis won in 1969 against the Congress. Gurnam Singh emerged as the chief minister again, with the help of the Jan Sangh. However, differences arose between Sant Fateh Singh and Gurnam Singh during the nomination of a candidate to the Rajya Sabha.
After the Jan Sangh members parted ways with Gurnam Singh, the Sant Fateh Singh group made Parkash Singh Badal the CM in 1970, but his government fell in 1971, and the state again had President’s rule imposed on it.
Gurnam Singh went on to create his separate Akali faction, which contested the 1972 polls against the Akali Dal.
The cracks in Shiromani Akali Dal widened in 1975 when Badal decided to protest against the imposition of the Emergency by Indira Gandhi. Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Jagdev Singh Talwandi, though initially opposed Badal’s stand, subsequently changed their view.
In June 1977, Badal again became the Punjab CM by forming a coalition with the Janata Party. Then, corruption allegations surfaced against his education minister, Sukhjinder Singh. Badal wanted to remove him, but then-SGPC chief Tohra and then-Akali Dal chief Talwandi supported Sukhjinder Singh.
Kuldeep Kaur, in her book ‘Akali Dal in Punjab politics: Splits and mergers’, writes that the differences between Badal, Tohra and Talwandi resulted in an organisational-ecclesiastical axis within the Akali Dal.
In September 1979, before the Akali Dal executive elections, Tohra and Talwandi wrote to the Akal Takht’s jathedar, complaining that Parkash Badal and then-SGPC vice-president Harchand Singh Longowal were acting against Sikh interests.
When all four appeared before the Akal Takht, Jathedar Sadhu Singh Bhaura tried to unite them, but failed. With the Badal-led government dismissed the same year, Punjab again came under President’s rule, but briefly.
Congress leader Darabara Singh became the next CM.
In August 1980, the Akali Dal under the leadership of the Badal group removed Jagdev Talwandi from the party, and Jagdev Talwandi, who, by then, had won over an Akali faction, removed Badal from his party.
Even as Talwandi projected himself as the chief of his faction, the Badal group handed the leadership of the Akalis to Longowal, whom Tohra supported as the head of SGPC. Badal, therefore, settled the matter in his own favour, though temporarily.
Out of power, both the Badal and the Talwandi groups started competitive Panthic politics. In August 1982, Longowal launched the Dharam Yudh Morcha to implement the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, endorsing Sikhism as a separate and individual religion, which is not a part of Hinduism, within months of the Talwandi faction announcing a similar programme.
What followed was further factionalism. Bhagwant Singh Danewalia, who had supported Talwandi so far, broke away and created his ‘Federal Shiromani Akali Dal’.
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Longowal-Talwandi-Badal-
Following Operation Blue Star in 1984 and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s death, his father, Baba Joginder Singh, was prompted by Talwandi to take over the Akali Dal, subsuming all factions. Joginder Singh announced a merger in 1985 with Simranjit Singh Mann, who was charged with the conspiracy to assassinate Indira Gandhi in 1984, as the Akali Dal convener. However, Longowal remained out of it.
In the same year, Longowal met Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for peace talks, though Badal and Tohra were against any such move. Supported by Surjit Singh Barnala, Harchand Longowal, however, signed a peace accord with Rajiv Gandhi. For this, he paid a heavy price in August 1985. Militants assassinated Longowal, and Barnala took over the reins of his faction. Tohra and Badal, too, threw in their lot with Barnala.
The Akalis won the 1985 assembly elections, and Barnala became the CM. However, after he launched an operation to flush out militants from the Golden Temple in April 1986, Badal vocalised his dissent with 27 MLAs and formed his separate Akali faction.
Captain Amarinder Singh, then a minister in the Barnala cabinet, also resigned in protest and became the president of the Akali Dal (Badal) group.
In February 1987, Akal Takht Jathedar Darshan Singh disbanded all the factions, declaring the creation of a United Akali Dal (UAD) under Mann, who was still in jail.
Adhering to the jathedar’s order, Capt Amarinder and Joginder Singh resigned as the heads of their respective factions.
With Joginder Singh’s support, Simranjit Mann then merged Akali Dal (Badal), Akali Dal (Talwandi), the All-India Sikh Students’ Federation (AISSF), and the Damdami Taksal. Surjit Barnala, however, stayed away.
Both Akali groups elected their respective SGPC presidents.
A few months later, Barnala’s government stood dismissed, and once again, Punjab came under the President’s rule.
Fragmentation of Akali Dal
In February 1992, elections were coming up in Punjab. Professor Kanwalpreet told ThePrint that the Akali Dal split into the highest number of factions ahead of that year’s election.
On 20 December 1991, the Akali Dal (Longowal) and Akali Dal (Panthic) merged to contest the state elections in an alliance. However, the AISSF, Akali Dal (Badal), Akali Dal (Mann), Akali Dal (Baba), and Akali Dal (Babbar) decided to boycott the elections till they found a permanent solution to the Punjab problem, according to the professor.
Afterwards, Kabul Singh, a member of Akali Dal (Longowal), revolted against his party’s decision to contest the poll and formed the faction Akali Dal (Kabul). Sukhjinder Singh, the then senior vice-president of Akali Dal (Badal), revolted against the decision not to fight the election and formed the faction Akali Dal (Sukhjinder).
Moreover, senior Akali leader Jiwan Singh Umranangal formed the Shiromani Jagat Akali Dal (S.J.A.D.), jointly with Baba Ajit Singh Nihang, the chief of the Taruna Nihang Dal. They also aimed to contest the elections.
The Akali Dal (Pheruman), however, decided not to contest. Talwandi’s Akali Dal-T, on the other hand, decided to boycott the election. AISSF also gave rise to a faction, called the Akali Dal (Manjit).
Congress eventually won the 1992 elections, and Beant Singh became the CM.
In 1994, the Akal Takht intervened again to unify all factions. Under the leadership of Simranjit Mann, the Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was created in May that year.
Badal, however, remained defiant and refused to join it.
Badal vs Tohra
By 1995, most of the Akali factions had joined the Parkash Badal group, which presented a secular option to Punjab. Mann-led Akali Dal (Amritsar), and Capt Amarinder headed Akali Dal (Panthic), both remaining independent of Badal.
In 1999, Badal, the head of the coalition government in power then, decided to celebrate 300 years of the establishment of the Khalsa. However, Tohra, the then-head of the SGPC, became upset that Badal did not involve his faction in the festivities.
Tohra criticised Badal, asking him to step down as the Akali Dal chief. Later, the CM removed the SGPC head from his post and replaced him with Bibi Jagir Kaur. Jagir Kaur is now in the Harpreet Singh-led rebel group that opposes Sukhbir Badal.
Ahead of the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, Tohra created the Sarb Hind Shiromani Akali Dal and contested seats. The 2002 election in Punjab was a debacle for the Parkash Badal administration and the Akali Dal.
After Captain Amarinder Singh became the CM of Punjab on a Congress ticket, Akal Takht Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti brought Badal and Tohra together. In 2003, Jagdev Tohra was again made the SGPC president.
In 2007, the Akali Dal-BJP alliance regained power in Punjab, and Badal became CM for a fourth term. In October 2010, Badal’s nephew and then-Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal broke away and formed the People’s Party of Punjab. Bhagwant Mann—now the Punjab CM—joined him at the time as the party’s general secretary.
In 2012, ahead of the Punjab assembly election, Manpreet Badal brought the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the CPI (Marxist), along with the Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal), under the common umbrella of the Sanjha Morcha. The morcha secured six percent of the votes in the polls but did not win a single seat.
A year before the 2017 Punjab assembly election, rebel Akali leaders, including brothers Balwinder Singh Bains and Simerjeet Singh Bains, jointly formed the Lok Insaaf Party, contested five seats in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and both brothers won the seats they contested.
Post-2017 rebellions
After the Akali Dal’s humiliating defeat in the 2017 Punjab assembly elections, the old guard of the party, the Taksali leaders, including Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Rattan Singh Ajnala, and Sewa Singh Sekhwan, left the Akali Dal. They laid the blame for the 2017 defeat at the door of the Badals. Prakash Singh Badal was especially blamed for making the party his family’s personal fiefdom.
Afterwards, Ajnala, Brahmpura, and Sekhwan created the Akali Dal (Taksali), and the Dhindsas created the Akali Dal (Democratic).
In February 2019, the Akali Dal (Taksali) joined with two AAP rebels, Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Dr Dharmvira Gandhi, creating the Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) before contesting the 2019 general elections. However, the party did not have much of an impact.
In April 2021, a year before the Punjab assembly elections, Akali Dal (Taksali) and Akali Dal (Democratic) declared that they planned to contest the election jointly, as a common party. However, the Akali Dal still suffered another humiliating defeat in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.
Following the death of Badal in 2023, the party leadership touched a new low. Though reconciliatory efforts by Sukhbir Badal led to some old guard leaders returning to the party fold, the Dhindsas continued to support all efforts to break the Akali Dal.
After the debacle of the party in the 2024 general elections, 50 leaders of the party, who were led by Jagir Kaur, Prem Singh Chandumajra, and Parminder Dhindsa, rebelled against Sukhbir Badal, demanding his resignation in June when the results came out, leading to the current, ongoing crisis in the party.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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