Overview

• Around 500 delegates at Gurdwara Burj Akali Phoola Singh in Amritsar unanimously elected former Akal Takht acting jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh as president of an Akal Takht-backed Shiromani Akali Dal breakaway faction, with Satwant Kaur named chair of its Panthic council.
• The Sukhbir Singh Badal-led SAD condemned the meeting as illegal, unconstitutional and immoral and announced plans to file criminal complaints over misuse of the party’s registered name and symbol.
• The breakaway group asserts clerical legitimacy and calls itself the “real” SAD but concedes it lacks the funding and electoral machinery that the Badal organisation controls.
• Senior dissident leaders, including former SGPC chiefs Bibi Jagir Kaur and Gobind Singh Longowal, attended the session, underscoring panthic backing for the split.
• Both camps are now positioning for upcoming Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee polls and the Tarn Taran Assembly by-poll, where institutional control and voter legitimacy will be decided.