BATHINDA: SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal on Friday visited the homes of two local leaders in Bathinda who had resigned from the party on January 12, following which one of them rejoined the outfit.The former chief minister is expected to visit the homes of the remaining three councillors who had also put in their papers along with the two. Basal reached the residence of MC councillor Nirmal Singh Sandhu in the evening and succeeded in persuading him to make a comeback to the Shiromani Akali Dal . He also visited the house of Rajinder Singh Mann, whose wife Parminder Kaur is a former councillor.Mann, however, did not disclose his position. The topmost SAD leader’s move came amid talks of the five local leaders joining the Congress after they put in their papers. It was being said that two or three of them could join the ruling party by Thursday.Sandhu told TOI that his family was “traditionally Akali”. “I resigned after some hired persons started calling the shots in our unit, but Badal saab came to my residence and I decided to rejoin the Shiromani Akali Dal,” he said.Badal said he had gone to “apne bandey” (our persons) to get them back in the party.In a setback for the SAD ahead of the parliamentary elections, four councillors of Bathinda MC and the husband of a former councillor had on January 12 announced to resign from party. The same day, Akali Dal had got some compensation with a former secretary of Punjab Congress, Iqbal Singh Dhillon, and Congress councillor Sherry Total joining the SAD.The remaining Akali councillors are Rajinder Singh Sidhu, Master Harmandar Singh, and Baljit Singh. Sidhu, when contacted, said he was not home and was going to join Congress on Thursday.

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