By 25 Au­gust evening, it will be clear as to who will be­come the ad­min­is­tra­tor and cus­to­dian of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee. 37.27 per cent of the Delhi Sikh cit­i­zens ex­er­cised their right to fran­chise, mostly in the post-lun­cheon ses­sion of the day amidst spec­u­la­tions that the Badal Dal had faced tough op­po­si­tion. While many groups are up­beat about their chances, every­one has to wait with fin­gers crossed to know the out­come of this elec­tion which once again saw an over­all low voter per cent, even much less than the 2017 turnout of 45.68 per cent. WSN Delhi Desk’s Gurmeet Singh re­ports.

VOT­ING in the 46 con­stituen­cies in the 546 polling booths across Delhi, to de­cide the fate of 312 can­di­dates in 46 con­stituen­cies of the DS­GMC, pro­gressed very slowly with an abysmal low of less than 10 per cent in the first half of the day. Some wards showed a rea­son­able turnout whereas oth­ers pre­sented a grim pic­ture. The over­all turnout of 37.27 per cent was much less than that polled in 2017, which was 45.68 per cent. The to­tal votes polled were less by 8 per cent as com­pared to the last elec­tion, four years ago. 

Rak­sha Band­han had its im­pact in the first half of the day when the vot­ing per­cent­age was very low.  As the num­bers picked up in the sec­ond half, can­di­dates and con­cerned Sikhs heaved a sigh of re­lief. Speak­ing to the WSN, Naren­der Singh, Di­rec­tor of Di­rec­torate Gur­d­wara Elec­tions, in­formed that the to­tal polling was 37.27% with Pun­jabi Bagh be­ing the high­est polling ward with 54.01% and Sham Na­gar be­ing the low­est polling ward with 25.18%. 

Pun­jabi Bagh is a key con­stituency that saw a con­test be­tween DS­GMC Pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa of the Badal Dal and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi co-chief Harvin­der Singh Sarna. The win­ner of this seat will likely be the next Pres­i­dent of the Delhi-based apex body if their party or al­liance is able to se­cure 24 or more seats out of the 46 wards.  

Tri Na­gar ward re­ported polling of  51.21%, Hari Na­gar 50.46%, La­j­pat Na­gar 50.69% and Guru Harkr­is­han Na­gar 48.37%.  Sur­pris­ingly, the densely pop­u­lated Sikh ar­eas of Sham Na­gar, Vishnu Gar­den, Khyala and Ravi Na­gar polled very less with 25.10%, 28.70%, 25.65% and 25.44% re­spec­tively. This one big clus­ter of ad­ja­cent ar­eas in West Delhi has 4 wards of DS­GMC be­cause of the high pop­u­la­tion of Sikhs re­sid­ing here.  Low voter turnout here is a re­flec­tion of the min­i­mal in­ter­est taken by the res­i­dents of the area in the DS­GMC elec­tions. 

When this cor­re­spon­dent spoke to Natha Singh of the JAGO party in the Sham Na­gar con­stituency, which re­ported the low­est turnout amongst all wards, he was very con­fi­dent of his prospects, as he claimed that he had given a tough fight to Har­jeet Singh of the Badal Dal.

Sarna scion Prab­hjit Singh Sarna, while speak­ing to WSN was pos­i­tive of the win of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi.

“In­flu­enced by the WSN cam­paign, I voted for the first time in the DS­GMC elec­tion.” 

Harpreet Singh Hora, Lawyer, Supreme Court of In­dia

Malkinder Singh, can­di­date of the pre-poll al­liance of Pan­thak Akali Lehar and Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi, from the Tagore Gar­den ward, rued the fact that the voter turnout was less than his ex­pec­ta­tions in parts of the con­stituency, but he was con­fi­dent that the Sikh San­gat will re­turn him again in view of his “work and re­la­tion­ships with the San­gat.”

Can­di­dates and cadres now have two days to rest be­fore the nerves go high on the day of re­sults -25 Au­gust 2021. The Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions will be on its toes till the re­sults are an­nounced and till the new com­mit­tee of­fi­cially takes charge by the end of this month on 31 Au­gust 2021.  

Though there have been large-scale re­ports of dis­tri­b­u­tion of largesse to in­flu­ence vot­ers in many con­stituen­cies, al­most by all groups and can­di­dates, for­tu­nately, there was no in­ternecine vi­o­lence dur­ing the polls.

Out of a to­tal pro­jected pop­u­la­tion in Delhi of 600,000, based on de­cen­nial growth, tak­ing the 2011 Cen­sus data as the base (as there has been no Cen­sus in 2021 due to COVID19), only 342,065 Sikhs reg­is­tered as vot­ers. From amongst them, 127,472 voted on 22 Au­gust, to de­cide the fate of 46 prospec­tive cus­to­di­ans, who will make de­ci­sions on a bud­get of Rs. 150 crores and pre­side over the man­age­ment of Sikh his­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras, in­sti­tu­tions, schools, a hos­pi­tal, pil­grim inns and of course, the pub­lic im­age and sta­tus of the Sikhs.

A part of me was happy that de­spite the threat of Covid19 and the Rak­sha Band­han fes­tiv­i­ties, a good 37 per cent of the elec­torate had come out of their homes to vote. Also, though there have been large-scale re­ports of dis­tri­b­u­tion of largesse to in­flu­ence vot­ers in many con­stituen­cies, al­most by all groups and can­di­dates, for­tu­nately, there was no in­ternecine vi­o­lence dur­ing the polls.

Only 128,581 Delhi Sikh vot­ers will make de­ci­sions on a bud­get of Rs. 150 crores and pre­side over the man­age­ment of Sikh his­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras, in­sti­tu­tions, schools, a hos­pi­tal, pil­grim inns and of course, the pub­lic im­age and sta­tus of the Sikhs.

WSN is con­scious that de­spite its best ef­forts to launch a com­pre­hen­sive so­cial me­dia cam­paign to ex­cite Sikh vot­ers, the voter turnout was less than ex­pected. How­ever, we take so­lace from the fact that we were able to im­pact the reg­is­tra­tion of votes and also many new vot­ers were in­flu­enced by the WSN cam­paign. 

Lead­ing Delhi High Court and Supreme Court lawyer -Harpreet Singh Hora, ac­knowl­edged, “In­flu­enced by the WSN cam­paign, I voted for the first time in the DS­GMC elec­tion.” An­other se­nior Sikh stal­wart said, “Thank you WSN for en­abling us to reg­is­ter votes of all our fam­ily mem­bers. We all voted to­day.”

Yet, at the end of the day, I could hear my own voice telling me, “You get what you de­serve.”