Ahead of Sangrur bypoll, a happy photograph and talk of panthic unity

This rare display of panthic unity comes ahead of the Sangrur Lok Sabha byelection and within two months of the SAD(Badal) witnessing a humiliating defeat in the 2022 Assembly elections.

A photograph from May 11 of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) president Sukhbir Singh Badal with SAD (Amritsar) president Simranjit Singh Mann and SAD (Delhi) president Paramjit Singh Sarna – arch rivals of the Badals not too long ago – generated considerable buzz in Punjab.

This was followed by an announcement on May 16 by the SAD-controlled Shiromani Gurudwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) on the formation of a nine-member committee to make efforts for the release of Sikh political prisoners. Besides Badal, the committee has as members Simranjit Singh Mann, Sarna and Sikh preacher Baljit Singh Daduwal, another known Badal baiter.