40 years ago July 6, 1986: Akali Dal formally splits

This is the front page of The Indian Express published on July 06, 1986.

2 min readJul 6, 2026 06:40 AM IST

First published on: Jul 6, 2026 at 06:40 AM IST

The Akali Dal formally split when a convention of the dissidents elected Parkash Singh Badal, former chief minister, party president after “removing” the Punjab Chief Minister, Surjit Singh Barnala, from the post. The convention, which the organisers claimed was attended by 342 of the 468 delegates of the Akali Dal, also “expelled” Barnala from the primary membership of the party.

PM’s Mauritius visit

The Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, wound up his two-day visit to Mauritius, proposing a Commonwealth package to offset losses suffered by some countries as a result of severing links with the racist regime of South Africa. He reiterated India’s stand on declaring the Indian Ocean a zone of peace and assured the island nation of India’s support in its demand for restoration of the Chagos archipelago, which, he said, has been “prised loose to make Diego Garcia into a base”.

Tamil militants meet MGR

The five Sri Lankan militant groups have told Tamil Nadu CM M G Ramachandran that the latest proposals of the island government for a solution to the ethnic problem are not acceptable in the present form. At their second round of discussions with MGR at the chief minister’s residence , the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation (EROS), the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) , the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the People’s Liberation Organisation for Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) also told Ramachandran that they would not be going to New Delhi since the Indian government had not invited any of them for discussions.

5 killed in Goa bridge collapse

Five persons were killed when the 15-year-old Mandovi bridge, forming the only surface link between Panaji and North Goa, collapsed. The government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the collapse, which has left the town totally stunned.