SAD (Badal) retains control of Delhi gurdwara body

Sukhbir Badal’s party wins 35 of 46 seats, main challenger SAD (Delhi) bags seven seats as its leader PS Sarna loses to Sirsa

CHANDIGARH :The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) staged a thumping victory in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) polls, on Wednesday. The party bagged 35 of the 46 seats. The main rival — the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) — could win only seven.

Two seats went to independent candidates and two went to Akal Sahai Welfare Society, a religious outfit that entered the contest for the first time. Panthic Sewa Dal, a front organisation of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), failed to open its account.

This is the second consecutive victory of the SAD (Badal) in the Delhi gurdwara body polls. The DSGMC manages 10 historical religious shrines in the national capital and a number of educational and medical institutions. In the 2013 elections, the SAD (Badal) won 37 seats and the tally of SAD (Delhi) was eight.

In a tight contest in which 1.75 lakh of the 3.8-lakh Sikh electorate exercised their franchise, the victory margin on half-a-dozen seats was less than 10% of the total votes. A total of 335 candidates contested the elections, the polling for which was held on February 26.

SAD (Badal) Delhi unit president, Manjit Singh GK, the president of the outgoing body, was declared winner from Greater Kailash for the fifth consecutive term. Manjinder Singh Sirsa, the general secretary of the outgoing gurdwara body, defeated former DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna for the second consecutive term from the Punjabi Bagh ward. GK, who led his party’s campaign, attributed the victory to the Sikh sangat. “The sangat has appreciated my performance in the form of their precious votes. Also, the results are a befitting reply to all those who said panthic vote had gone away from the Akali Dal,” he said.