Now that Lok Sabha elections are over, calls for the much-delayed Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) polls are getting louder.
The SGPC polls are usually organised five years after the appointment of the chief commissioner, gurdwara elections. The last time these polls were held was in 2011, when 157 of a total 170 seats were won by the SAD-Sant Samaj alliance. “Elections were due in 2016, but they were never held as the existing body claimed it had gotten an extension. However, on February 14, 2019, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha had passed a resolution requesting the central government to hold SGPC elections. I had also written to the PM and had even got a reply that elections will be organised. Hence SAD’s claim that the SGPC body had got an extension falls flat. Hence, polls must be held and the state government must take up the matter with the Union Home Minister at the earliest,” said H S Phoolka, AAP MLA from Dakha while talking to The Indian Express. Phoolka had moved the resolution in Vidhan Sabha.