The purported statement made by one of the speakers from the stage of Akali Dal Waris Punjab De (WPD) during the Rakhar Punya event has given the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) fresh ammunition to target the Panthic group, with the party alleging that its main objective is not to win the elections but to cut the SAD’s Panthic vote share through social engineering.A portion of the purported video of the statement was shared through a social media handle.In the video, a person sharing the stage with jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh’s father Tarsem Singh, Dakha MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali and others was addressing the gathering in the pandal set up by WPD.The SAD has further claimed that these Panthic groups have been created to dent the traditional vote bank of the Akali Dal.Waris Punjab De was quick to react and accused the SAD of misrepresenting facts.In a statement, the party claimed that the video clip was part of a public address by Panthic scholar Baljit Singh Khalsa.According to WPD, Khalsa was narrating an old story about the 1997 government when Panthic scholar Gurbachan Singh, a companion of Jaswant Singh Khalra, had said that if it meant voting for a “kala chor” (black thief), it was important to defeat the Badals; only then could the Sikhs be saved.WPD said Khalsa had narrated the old story in a historical context during the release of his book on the Badals.The party claimed that instead of playing out the whole video, only a portion was played in such a manner as to give a different context to the issue.ਬਾਬਾ ਬਕਾਲਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਦੀ ਪਵਿੱਤਰ ਧਰਤੀ ‘ਤੇ ਅੱਜ ਧੰਨ ਧੰਨ ਗੁਰੂ ਤੇਗ ਬਹਾਦਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਦੀ ਕਲਾ ਵਰਤੀ ਹੈ 🙏ਆ ਮੰਨ ਗਏ ਖੁੱਦ ਹੀ ਜਿੰਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਸਰਕਾਰਾਂ ਨੇ ਪੰਥ ਵਿੱਚ ਵਾਇਰਸ ਬਣਾ ਕੇ ਛੱਡਿਆ ਤਾਂ ਜੋ ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਅਕਾਲੀ ਦਲ ਨੂੰ ਕਮਜ਼ੋਰ ਕੀਤਾ ਜਾ ਸਕੇ।ਵਾਇਰਸ ਦਲ ਵਾਲੇ ਕਹਿੰਦੇ ਅਸੀਂ ਤਾਂ ਜਿੱਤਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਤੇ ਅਸੀਂ ਸ਼੍ਰੋਮਣੀ ਅਕਾਲੀ ਦਲ ਨੂੰ… pic.twitter.com/iM3aND7dVw— Shiromani Akali Dal (@Akali_Dal_) August 28, 2026SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal has been particularly vocal about the Waris Punjab De group led by jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh and has called it “Virus Punjab De”.The political contest for the Panthic vote among Akali factions came into sharp focus at the Rakhar Punya conferences in Baba Bakala on Friday, with the Akali Dal Waris Punjab De (WPD) using the drug menace and sacrilege cases to target the SAD.