SGPC poll likely after Lok Sabha elections

GS Paul

Amritsar, June 7

While preparations are underway to register the voters for the SGPC poll, it’s unlikely that the election would be conducted before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Voters from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh would elect 170 members to the 190 General House of the SGPC. The last poll was held in 2011 in which over 52 lakh eligible voters participated.

The registration process would be a time-consuming exercise and would take more than a year to furnish the requisite pre-poll procedure.

The lack of clarity on the role of Sikhs from Haryana in the SGPC election, too, may delay the poll.

With the intervention of the Haryana Government, an ad-hoc Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) was formed after procuring the legal validation of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Act 2014.

The move is being challenged by the SGPC for lack of making a requisite amendment in the Sikh Gurdwaras Act 1925, which is the basis of the Sikh body.

SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema believed that it would take at least one year to finalise the list of voters. He said the registration of voters should be a time- bound process.

SGPC member Kiranjot Kaur said the SGPC poll would be different from the Vidhan Sabha and Parliament elections as registration of voters start from a scratch.

As per the 2011 Gurdwara Election Commission, Punjab has 52,68,664 voters followed by Haryana (3,37681), HP (23,011) and Chandigarh (11,932).

Dhami slams Bibi’s invite to Cong

Anandpur Sahib: Reacting to the invitation of former SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur to parties, including the Congress, BJP and AAP, to join her newly launched Shiromani Akali Panth to contest the SGPC elections, SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami said it was akin to justifying Operation Bluestar