DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Shiromani Akali Dal leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder on Wednesday said a 13-member committee formed to analyse the reasons for the party's humiliating defeat in the 2022 Punjab assembly polls did not recommend a change in its leadership. The core committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) authorised party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal to take the necessary follow-up action on the implementation of the committee's recommendations, he further said. The panel, led by Iqbal Singh Jhundan, visited 100 assembly constituencies to take feedback from party workers and other people. The report is yet to be made public. The SAD's core committee, presided by Sukhbir Badal, applauded and accepted the panel's report and thanked its members for their "thorough painstaking and honest feedback" from the party workers and the people at large. Badal has been given full powers to rejig the party structure in line with the Jhundan-panel recommendations. He has been authorised to take whatever steps he deems necessary for streamlining the functioning and refurbishing the public profile of the party, including consulting a cross section of Sikh intellectuals, religious and political ideologues, including the NRIs. To a question whether there was any recommendation to change the party leadership, Bhunder said there was no word in the report on changing the SAD president. Bhunder was the convener of the 13-member panel. SAD MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali had on July 18 boycotted the presidential polls, claiming various issues related to Punjab remain unresolved. He had sought implementation of the Jhundan panel report and also spoken about bringing change in the party leadership. Sukhbir Singh Badal is the president of SAD. Bhunder said the panel's report highlights the strengths and the weaknesses, and the achievements and the shortcomings of the party as well as the challenges ahead. Without divulging the contents of the report, Bhunder said the party president had set up the committee for "totally honest assessment of the performance of the party minus the frills as well as the reasons that led to its less than satisfactory showing in the elections". (editor@dailyworld.in)