Ahead of the high-stakes 2027 Punjab assembly elections, the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) finds itself on the backfoot following the registration of a rape case against senior party leader and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member Amarjit Singh Chawla.
The scandal has come at a critical juncture when the party was looking to reclaim its lost ground in the state, especially among Panthic voters, with the high-decibel Punjab Bachao Campaign. The complainant alleged that she was wrongfully confined and repeatedly sexually assaulted. Chawla, who dismissed the charges as baseless and part of a political conspiracy, tendered his resignations from all party posts and the SGPC before going into hiding. Police teams are currently conducting raids to arrest him. The controversy strikes at the heart of SAD’s core revival strategy. Sukhbir had been leading the party’s outreach campaign across the state with renewed urgency even after surviving a knife attack by an assailant at a gurdwara in Maharashtra’s Nanded. the Chawla episode has put the party on the defensive, say political analysts While that incident had drawn sympathy and allowed the Akali leadership to consolidate regional sentiments.
The case stems from an FIR registered on August 21 by the Anandpur Sahib police based on a complaint lodged by a Bahrain-based woman originally hailing from Sangrur.
A delegation from the SAD rebel faction, Punar Surjit, met chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday to demand an independent, high-level SIT probe into how the complainant’s grievances were initially ignored by top authorities. the matter has provided enough fodder to SAD’s opponents, especially the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), to launch a blistering attack on it While the Sikh clergy and the SGPC has tried to do a damage control by ex-communicating Chawla and forming a probe panel that has been tasked with submitting its report in 15 days. Adding to the party’s woes, pressure is mounting for the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to look into the matter.
