The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided to contest the panchayat elections in Haryana for the first time on its own and Balwinder Singh Bhunder Member Rajya Sabha and general secretary of the SAD will be the overall State incharge to spearhead the campaign.
Earlier, SAD used to contest elections in Haryana in alliance with the Indian National lok Dal. In Punjab, it contests Assembly as well as lok Sabha polls in alliance with the BJP.
SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said Haryana has been divided into five zones for selection of candidates and supervision of panchayats elections.
He said senior vice president of SAD Bibi Jagir Kaur, who is also the president of women’s wing of the party, has been entrusted with the command of zone-1 comprising districts of Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra. Senior Akali leaders Surjit Singh Rakhra and NK Sharma would share the responsibility as co-incharges.
Member lok Sabha and SAD general secretary Prem Singh Chandumajra has been made the incharge of zone-2 to supervise Kaithal, Jind, Karnal and Panipat districts. Besides, senior SAD leader Sikandar Singh Maluka would look after zone-3 comprising Hissar, Fatehabad, Sirsa and Bhiwani districts and Mantar Singh Brar would be the co-incharge.
Badal informed that senior vice president Avtar Singh Hit has been given the responsibility of zone-5 as Incharge for Gurgaon, Palwal, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Nuh districts. Harmeet Singh Kalka would be co-incharge. He said that Rohtak, Rewari, Panipat and Mahendragarh districts have been included in zone-4 and incharges would be announced very shortly.