Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD’s) core committee on Wednesday authorised party president Sukhbir Singh Badal to take the necessary action to streamline the party in the backdrop of its poor show in the February assembly polls.
Endorsing the recommendations of the report submitted by the "poll performance review committee’’ set up to go into the causes of the showing of the party in the said elections, the core committee authorised Sukhbir to reconstitute the party structure in line with the recommendations of the report.
Briefing newspersons after the core committee meeting, the party secretary general, Balwinder Singh Bhunder said that the poll review committee report highlighted both the strengths and the weaknesses of the party in the past as well as the challenges and opportunities before it in the days to come.
He said that subsequently Sukhbir Badal has been authorised to take whatever steps he deemed necessary for streamlining the functioning and refurbishing the public profile of the party, including holding wide-ranging consultations with a cross-section of Sikh intellectuals, religious and political ideologues, teachers, students, farmers, traders, employees, social activists as well as eminent Punjabis from all sections of society including the NRIs.
Meanwhile, the SAD rejected the MSP committee set up by the Union government without taking the principal stakeholders, the farmers and representatives from Punjab on board.
The core committee also strongly condemned what it termed as “utterly insane remarks made by SAD (Amritsar) MP, Simranjit Singh Mann about martyr Bhagat Singh''.
The SAD regarded Mann’s remarks as a symptom of a sick mentality and an attempt to undermine Punjabis’ and Sikhs’ contribution to the freedom of the country, said a resolution passed at the core committee meeting.
It may be recalled that Mann had won last month the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency by-election necessitated after the then MP Bhagwant Mann became the state’s chief minister after the state assembly election in February, this year.
