Azad Group joins SAD, Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa to contest Tarn Taran bypoll
Shiromani Akali Dal
president
Sukhbir Singh Badal
on Sunday announced Azad Group president Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa as the party's candidate for the Tarn Taran bypoll, marking the merger of the grassroots group into the SAD.
The merger is a shot in the arm for the SAD in the rural, border constituency. Addressing a rally where he made the announcement, Sukhbir said Randhawa, along with 43 serving sarpanches, eight municipal councillors, and several former sarpanches and chairmen, had joined the SAD. He also declared Randhawa as the party's halqa in-charge for Tarn Taran.
The bypoll was necessitated by June 27 passing away of AAP MLA Dr Kashmir Singh Sohal.
The Election Commission is yet to announce a date for the bypoll, but the AAP, the BJP and the SAD have already started work for the electoral contest. Three-time MLA Harmeet Singh Sandhu joined the AAP last week, while BJP announced former minister Surjit Kumar Jyani as its in-charge for the constituency just a day later.
Sandhu had quit SAD in 2024. At the rally in Tarn Taran's Jhabal village, Sukhbir said senior SAD functionary Gulzar Singh Ranike would be the in-charge for the bypoll campaign.
He appealed to Punjabis to unite under the Akali flag to counter "outside forces" who wanted to loot the state. "These forces were behind the 2015 acts of sacrilege which were committed with the sole aim of weakening SAD. We have already called for an independent probe into these sacrilege cases as it feels that only a free-and-fair probe can unmask AAP's role in these heinous incidents," Sukhbir said.
He said the AAP's role in the incidents of sacrilege was evident from the conviction of its legislator for sacrilege of the Quran.
Randhawa said parties often neglected Punjab after coming to power and accused AAP govt of handing over the state's control to Delhi.
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