Former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Bibi Jagir Kaur will formally re-enter the Shiromani Akali Dal on November 13, clinching the second high-profile homecoming of a seasoned dissenter in weeks.
The rift has closed. Party president Sukhbir Singh Badal will arrive in Begowal on November 13 to address a convention of local workers, where Kaur will formally step back into the organization. Her return follows hard on the heels of senior leader Prem Singh Chandumajra, who recently walked back into the fold after an extended period of estrangement. Both leaders had pulled away from the Badal leadership following the party's crushing defeat in the 2022 Punjab assembly elections, driven out by bitter disputes over organizational control and political direction.
"Akali Dal is our mother party, and it is the need of the hour to strengthen it," Kaur told reporters on Sunday.
She insisted she had never stood against Sukhbir Badal personally, brushing aside past friction. Yet the political math behind the reunion is unmistakable. Senior regional heavyweights had abandoned the party in droves after 2022, eroding its traditional panthic core and paralyzing constituency-level operations. Now, the old guard is circling the wagons.
The outreach is deliberate and defensive. The Akali Dal faces a grueling uphill climb to rebuild its organizational machinery ahead of the 2027 assembly elections. With the governing Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress, and an assertive Bharatiya Janata Party fiercely contesting the state's political space, Badal cannot afford a fractured flank. Presenting a unified front demands veteran operators who command institutional memory and deep regional ties.
Bridging these internal divides serves as Badal's opening gamble to steady the ship and re-establish the party's relevance across rural Punjab.
The focus now shifts to the Begowal rally on November 13, where Badal and Kaur will face grassroots cadre to test their reconstituted alliance.