Shiromani Akali Dal facts for kids

For other uses, see Shiromani Akali Dal (disambiguation).

Quick facts for kids Shiromani Akali Dal

President	Sukhbir Singh Badal
Lok Sabha leader	Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Founded	14 December 1920 (104 years ago) (1920-12-14)
Headquarters	Block #6, Madhya Marg Sector 28, Chandigarh
Newspaper	Akali Awaaz
Student wing	Student Organisation of India
Youth wing	Youth Akali Dal
Women's wing	Istri Akali Dal
Labour wing	Shiromani Akali Dal SC wing
Peasant's wing	Shiromani Akali Dal BC wing
Ideology	Conservatism Punjabiyat Punjabi nationalism Federalism
Political position	Centre-right to right-wing
Colours	Navy Blue & Saffron
ECI Status	State Party
Alliance	SAD+BSP (2021-2023) SAD+INLD (2021-Present) NDA (1998–2020)
Seats in Lok Sabha	1 / 543
Seats in Rajya Sabha	0 / 245
Seats in Punjab Legislative Assembly	3 / 117
Election symbol

Elections

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which means Supreme Eternal Party, is a political party in Punjab, India. It mainly focuses on the Sikh community. This party is the second-oldest in India, having been started on December 14, 1920. While there are other groups called Akali Dal, the one officially recognized is led by Sukhbir Singh Badal. The party works for the interests of Punjab and its people. In September 2020, it left the National Democratic Alliance because of disagreements over new farm laws.

Party History

Early Years in British India

The Akali Dal was formed on December 14, 1920. It started as a group to help the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, which is a religious body for Sikhs. The Akali Dal sees itself as the main voice for Sikhs. Sardar Sarmukh Singh Chubbal was the first president. However, the party became very well-known under Master Tara Singh.

In the 1937 provincial election, the Akali Dal won 10 seats. They were in the opposition. In the 1946 election, they won 22 seats and joined a government with the Indian National Congress. Like other Sikh groups, Master Tara Singh and his Akali Dal strongly disagreed with the idea of dividing India. They worried it would cause problems for Sikhs.

After India's Independence

In the 1950s, the party started the Punjabi Suba movement. They wanted a separate state for people who spoke Punjabi, led by Sant Fateh Singh. In 1966, the state of Punjab as we know it today was created. The Akali Dal came to power in Punjab in March 1967. At first, their governments did not last long because of disagreements within the party. Later, the party grew stronger, and its governments completed their full terms.

Different Groups Today

Over time, some leaders left the main Shiromani Akali Dal to form their own groups. For example, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa started SAD (D) in July 2020. He said his group was the "true" Akali Dal.

Before this, in late 2018, some senior members who were no longer part of the main party, like Ranjit Singh Brahmpura, formed SAD (T). They believed the Badal family was leading the Shiromani Akali Dal in the wrong direction.

Before the 2022 Punjab elections, both SAD (T) and SAD (D) joined together to form a new party called Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt). This new party worked with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Punjab elections.

Party Goals

The main goals of the Shiromani Akali Dal are to protect the rights of Sikhs, manage Punjab's water resources, and oppose the Sutlej Yamuna link canal.

1996 Moga Conference

In 1996, the Shiromani Akali Dal held an important meeting in Moga. Here, they decided to focus on a more general Punjabi agenda. They also moved their main office from Amritsar to Chandigarh.

Party Presidents

This table lists the presidents of the party.

S. No.	Name	Portrait	Term Start	Term End	Duration
1	Sarmukh Singh Jhabal	--	17 February 1969	27 March 1970	1 year, 1 month, 10 days 405 days
2	Kharak Singh		--	--	--
3	Master Tara Singh		--	--	--
4	Gopal Singh Qaumi		--	--	--
5	Tara Singh Thethar	--	--	--
6	Teja Singh Akarpuri		--	--	--
7	Babu Labh Singh	--	--	--
8	Udham Singh Nagoke		--	--	--
9	Giani Kartar Singh	--	--	--
10	Pritam Singh Gojran (Gujjran Sangrur)	--	--	--
11	Hukam Singh	--	--	--
12	Fateh Singh	--	--	--
13	Achar Singh	--	--	--
14	Bhupinder Singh	--	--	--
15	Mohan Singh Tur		--	--	--
16	Jagdev Singh Talwandi		--	--	--
17	Harchand Singh Longowal		--	20 August 1985	--
18	Surjit Singh Barnala		27 September 1985	1996	11 years, 9 months, 15 days (4,291 days)
19	Parkash Singh Badal		1996	2008	12 years (4,383 days)
20	Sukhbir Singh Badal		2008	2024	16 years, 2 months (5,927 days)
21	Balwinder Singh Bhunder		2024	2025	1 year and 14 days (379 days)
22	Sukhbir Singh Badal		12 April 2025	Present	(1 day)

Party Members in Government

This section shows how many members the Shiromani Akali Dal has in different parts of the government.

House	Current Members	Leader
Union Parliament
Lok Sabha	1	Harsimrat Kaur Badal
State Legislature
Punjab Legislative Assembly	3 / 117	Manpreet Singh Ayali

Leaders in the Union Government

Here is a list of leaders from the Shiromani Akali Dal who have served in the Union (national) government.

No.	Name	Term in office		Duration	Portfolio	Prime Minister
1	Parkash Singh Badal	26 March 1977	27 March 1977	1 day	Minister of Communications	Morarji Desai
1	Parkash Singh Badal	28 March 1977	17 June 1977	81 days	Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
2	Surjit Singh Barnala	18 June 1977	28 July 1979	2 years, 40 days	Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation
		19 March 1998	13 October 1999	1 year, 208 days	Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
		19 March 1998	13 October 1999	Minister of Food and Consumer Affairs
3	Sukhbir Singh Badal	20 March 1998	13 October 1999	1 year, 207 days	Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry
4	Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa	22 November 1999	26 November 1999	4 days	Minister of Works and Estates (Merged with Ministry of Urban Development)
		7 November 2000	22 May 2004	3 years, 197 days	Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
		27 May 2000	7 November 2000	164 days	Minister of Mines
		2 February 2000	7 November 2000	279 days	Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports
5	Harsimrat Kaur Badal	27 May 2014	30 May 2019	5 years, 3 days	Minister of Food Processing Industries	Narendra Modi
	Harsimrat Kaur Badal	31 May 2019	18 September 2020	1 year, 110 days	Minister of Food Processing Industries	Narendra Modi

Chief Ministers from the Party

This table lists the Chief Ministers from the Shiromani Akali Dal who have led the government in Punjab.

Sr. No.	Portrait	Chief Minister	Constituency	In Office		Duration
Sr. No.	Portrait	Chief Minister	Constituency	From	To	Duration
1		Gurnam Singh (1899–1973)	Qila Raipur	17 February 1969	27 March 1970	1 year, 38 days
2		Surjit Singh Barnala (1925–2017)	Barnala	29 September 1985	11 June 1987	1 year, 255 days
3		Parkash Singh Badal (1927–2023)	Gidderbaha	27 March 1970	14 June 1971	1 year, 79 days
			Gidderbaha	20 June 1977	17 February 1980	2 years, 242 days
			Lambi	12 February 1997	26 February 2002	5 years, 14 days
				1 March 2007	14 March 2012	5 years, 13 days
				14 March 2012	16 March 2017	5 years, 2 days

Deputy Chief Ministers from the Party

This table lists the Deputy Chief Ministers from the Shiromani Akali Dal.

Sr. No.	Name (constituency) (birth-death)	Term of office			Chief Minister	Appointed by
1	Sukhbir Singh Badal ( - ) (born 1962)	21 January 2009	1 July 2009	161 days	Prakash Singh Badal	S. F. Rodrigues
2	Sukhbir Singh Badal (Jalalabad) (born 1962)	10 August 2009	14 March 2012	2 years, 217 days		S. F. Rodrigues
2	Sukhbir Singh Badal (Jalalabad) (born 1962)	14 March 2012	16 March 2017	5 years, 2 days		Shivraj Patil

Election Results

This section shows how the Shiromani Akali Dal has performed in different elections.

General Elections (National)

This table shows the party's results in national elections for the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India's Parliament).

General Elections Results
Year	General Election	Seats Won	Change in # of Seats	Percentage of Vote	Vote Swing
1945	6th Central Legislative Assembly	2		—	—
1951	1st Lok Sabha	4	2	0.99%	—
1957	2nd Lok Sabha	0	4	—	—
1962	3rd Lok Sabha	3	3	0.72%	—
1967	4th Lok Sabha	3		—	—
1971	5th Lok Sabha	1	2	0.87%	—
1977	6th Lok Sabha	9	8	1.26%	—
1980	7th Lok Sabha	1	8	0.71%	—
1984	8th Lok Sabha	7	6	17.9%	—
1989	9th Lok Sabha	0	7	—	—
1991	10th Lok Sabha	0		—	—
1996	11th Lok Sabha	8	8	0.76%	—
1998	12th Lok Sabha	8		0.81%	—
1999	13th Lok Sabha	2	6	25.58%	—
2004	14th Lok Sabha	8	6	34.28%	—
2009	15th Lok Sabha	4	4	0.96%	—
2014	16th Lok Sabha	4		20.30%	13.55%
2019	17th Lok Sabha	2	2	27.45%	13.9%
2024	18th Lok Sabha	1	1	13.42%	14.03%

State Elections

These tables show the party's performance in elections for state assemblies.

Punjab Provincial Assembly Elections

This table shows results for elections in the Punjab Provincial Assembly before India's independence.

Legislative Assembly elections
Election Year	Leader	seats contested	seats won	+/- in seats	Overall votes	% of overall votes	+/- in vote share	Sitting side
1937	Master Tara Singh	81	11 / 175		1,788,856	5.58		Others
1946	Master Tara Singh	81	20 / 175	9	3,550,212	10.94	5.36	Others

Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections

This table shows results for elections in the Punjab Legislative Assembly after India's independence.

Legislative Assembly elections
Election Year	Leader	seats contested	seats won	+/- in seats	Overall votes	% of overall votes	+/- in vote share	Sitting side
1952	Gopal Singh Khalsa	48	13 / 126	13	620,455	12.44	12.44	Opposition
1957	Contested with Congress and 28 Akali leaders won.
1962	Gurnam Singh	46	16 / 154	16	799,925	11.87	11.87	Opposition
1967	Sant Fateh Singh (SFSG)	59	24 / 104	24	871,742	20.48	20.48	Opposition
1967	Master Tara Singh (MTSG)	61	2 / 104	2	178,746	4.20	4.20	Opposition
1969	Gurnam Singh	65	43 / 104	43	1,381,916	29.36	29.36	Government
1972	Jaswinder Singh Brar	72	24 / 104	19	1,344,437	27.64	1.72	Opposition
1977	Parkash Singh Badal	70	58 / 117	34	1,776,602	31.41	3.8	Government
1980	Harchand Singh Longowal	73	37 / 117	21	1,683,266	26.92	4.49	Opposition
1985	Surjit Singh Barnala	100	73 / 117	23	2,630,270	38.01	11.09	Government
1992	Boycotted the elections
1997	Parkash Singh Badal	92	75 / 117	75	3,873,099	37.64	37.64	Government
2002		92	41 / 117	34	3,196,924	31.08	6.56	Opposition
2007		93	48 / 117	7	4,689,018	37.09	6.01	Government
2012		94	56 / 117	8	4,828,612	34.73	2.36	Government
2017		94	15 / 117	41	3,898,161	25.2	9.4	Others
2022	Sukhbir Singh Badal	97	3 / 117	12	2,861,286	18.38	6.86	Others

Haryana Legislative Assembly Elections

This table shows results for elections in the Haryana Legislative Assembly.

Legislative Assembly elections
Election Year	Leader	seats contested	seats won	+/- in seats	Overall votes	% of overall votes	+/- in vote share	Sitting side
2009	Charanjeet Kaur Mallour	2	1 / 90		9,490,092	0.98		Opposition
2014	Balkaur Singh	5	1 / 90		12,426,968	0.6	0.38	Coalition
2019	Rajinder Singh Desujodha	3	0 / 90	1	12,520,177	0.38	0.22	Extra-parliamentary

Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections

This table shows results for elections in the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Legislative Assembly elections
Election Year	Leader	seats contested	seats won	+/- in seats	Overall votes	% of overall votes	+/- in vote share	Sitting side
2013	Manjinder Singh Sirsa	4	1 / 70		7,699,800	1		Government
2015	Manjinder Singh Sirsa	1	0 / 90	1	8,978,269	0.5	0.5	Opposition

Core Committee Members

This table lists members of the party's core committee.

Sr. No.	Name (constituency) (birth)	Portrait	Term of office
1	Sarabjeet Singh Jhinjer ( - ) (born 1982)		08 June 2023	16 July 2024	1 year, 38 days

Images for kids

Poster released in 1921 by the Secretary Akali Dal, appealing to all Akali factions to unite or face extinction, Amritsar, circa June 1921. Digitized by the Panjab Digital Library.