45.7 per cent polling in DSGMC elections

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 26

A 45.76 per cent turnout was recorded in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections on Sunday. The polling was slow in the first half of the day but picked up in the afternoon as voters turned up in groups at the polling stations.

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As per the Directorate of Gurdwara Elections, Delhi government, 45.76 per cent turnout was recorded. Polling was held for 46 seats of the DSGMC.

In the 2013 elections, 42.4 per cent polling was registered and the SAD (Badal) had got majority.

At 65.9 per cent, the highest polling today was recorded in Tri Nagar and the lowest was in Santgarh at 26.14 per cent.

In the first half of the day polling was slow in most of the wards. About 20 per cent polling was recorded till 1 pm. It picked up in Tilak Nagar, Tilak Vihar, Chokhandi and Santgarh in the afternoon.

Though voters were silent at most places, in Tilak Nagar and Tilak Vihar they openly disclosed their choice of having cast vote in favour of Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal).

Tilak Nagar and Tilak Vihar are two wards where several victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots reside. A ‘widow colony’ of the riot victims is located in Tilak Vihar.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) president Paramjit Singh Sarna is contesting the election from the Punjabi Bagh ward — considered to be a very sensitive area — against rival SAD (Badal) candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa.

Sarna claimed the tide was in his favour.

“I will win at least 38 to 40 seats,” Sirsa said, adding that the illegal betting market, called the satta bazaar, gave his party 38 seats but he was expecting the party to touch 42-seat mark.