Amidst a ris­ing COVID19 surge in Delhi and the coun­try, a could­n’t care less Delhi Sikh com­mu­nity, with a reg­is­tered elec­torate of 342,065 is likely to elect 46 mem­bers, from amongst the 310 can­di­dates in the fray for the DS­GMC. The Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee gen­eral elec­tions will be con­ducted by the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions of the gov­ern­ment of Delhi on 25 April 2021.

WITH AND ES­TI­MATED CEN­TEN­NIAL POP­U­LA­TION of around 610,000 and a reg­is­tered voter count of 342,065, the elec­tions to the 46 wards of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee (DS­GMC) are likely to be held on 25 April with mur­murs of protest seek­ing post­pone­ment of elec­tions due to COVID19 scare as in­fec­tions cross 17,000 a day which is al­most dou­ble the num­ber last year.

If the elec­tions are held as sched­uled, the re­sults will be de­clared on 28 April when the count­ing of votes will be done. Sub­se­quently, upon the co-op­tion of four mem­bers by mem­bers de­pend­ing upon their strength, the new house will be con­sti­tuted.  The Jathedars of Five Takhts are au­to­mat­i­cally co-pted, whereas one mem­ber is nom­i­nated by the SGPC.

A group of young­sters have al­ready gone on record on so­cial me­dia urg­ing Sikhs to stay in­doors, ef­fec­tively mak­ing elec­tion­eer­ing dif­fi­cult and cum­ber­some.

The Di­rec­tor of the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions Narinder Singh, while speak­ing to WSN con­firmed the num­ber of can­di­dates and the to­tal elec­torate, whose de­tails are all men­tioned on the Di­rec­torate web­site.

“The elec­tions will be held us­ing bal­lot pa­per and there is no op­tion of NOTA (None Of The Above) in the cur­rent DS­GMC elec­tion,”

Narinder Singh, Di­rec­tor, Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions

“The elec­tions will be held us­ing bal­lot pa­per and there is no op­tion of NOTA (None Of The Above) in the cur­rent DS­GMC elec­tion,” he added.

Narinder Singh told this cor­re­spon­dent that the Sikhs of Delhi must over­whelm­ingly par­tic­i­pate in the vot­ing process for the DS­GMC and there should be an in­crease in vot­ing as com­pared to the pre­vi­ous elec­tion’s 46 per cent in 2017.

Sikhs of Delhi have shown lit­tle re­gard for the DS­GMC elec­tions as shown by the num­ber of the elec­torate. The voter count has come down from 383,561 in 2017 to 342,065, even though there were three ex­ten­sions for the pe­riod of en­rol­ment and even on­line en­rol­ment was an op­tion. Even the DS­GMC did not make any ef­forts to en­hance the voter num­bers.

Ex­cept for a lit­tle ac­tivism in some pock­ets, the Singh Sab­has reg­is­tered with the Di­rec­torate and even un­reg­is­tered Gur­d­waras and Sikh in­sti­tu­tions and ac­tivists did not make any spe­cial ef­forts to mo­ti­vate Sikh San­gat to get their votes reg­is­tered. The pre­sent num­ber of vot­ers has been pos­si­ble be­cause of the in­ter­est shown by the var­i­ous groups who are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the polls.

189 can­di­dates are from the 6 reg­is­tered groups and 121 are in­de­pen­dent, with only 17 fe­male can­di­dates. In­ter­est­ingly, the num­ber of fe­male vot­ers is 171,370 and Male Vot­ers is 170695, with women vot­ers hav­ing a slen­der lead. 

World Sikh News mo­ti­vated and warned time and again that should this dis­dain of the Delhi Sikh vot­ers con­tinue, they will lose their moral right to ques­tion those elected. Yet apart from some face­book war­riors, there was no ground­work worth the name to en­list young vot­ers and also to gen­er­ate more in­ter­est in these elec­tions which de­cide the man­age­ment of his­toric Gur­d­waras and ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions run by the DS­GMC.

It is note­wor­thy that nearly 75,000 pre­vi­ous vot­ers, typ­i­cally due to their lax­ity and in­dif­fer­ence and some due to COVID19 con­di­tions did not ver­ify or up­date their records.

Speak­ing to WSN, Narinder Singh pointed out that nearly 75,000 pre­vi­ous vot­ers, typ­i­cally due to their lax­ity and in­dif­fer­ence and some due to COVID19 con­di­tions did not ver­ify or up­date their records. All of these were a sum-to­tal of du­pli­cate votes, false en­tries, deaths and peo­ple who moved from their ad­dresses.

The World Sikh News can humbly say that its cam­paign for the DS­GMC months be­fore the elec­tions and its con­tin­ued in­ter­ac­tion with the Di­rec­torate of Gur­d­wara Elec­tions en­abled as many as 45,000 new ap­pli­cants to reg­is­ter as vot­ers -both on­line and of­fline. Balkar Singh, a res­i­dent of Paschim Vi­har, while speak­ing to WSN said, “we get what we de­serve.”

A large num­ber of these ap­pli­cants were per­suaded through the WSN ed­u­ca­tion and mo­ti­va­tion cam­paign to check old votes and make new ones. Elite and pro­fes­sional Sikhs were also in­flu­enced by the re­lent­less WSN cam­paign. Sat­nam Singh, a new voter from Ra­jouri Gar­den, speak­ing to this re­porter said, “But for WSN, I would not have reg­is­tered my vote.”

6 re­li­gious groups are in the fray, with the in­cum­bent Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Badal Dal), led by pre­sent Pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa con­test­ing 46 seats on the sym­bol ‘Buck­et’. The Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi led by broth­ers Paramjit Singh Sarna and Harvin­der Singh Sarna, who has en­tered a pre-poll al­liance with the Bhai Ran­jit Singh-led Panbthik Akali Lehar is con­test­ing 34 and 8 seats with sym­bols ‘Car’ and ‘Can­dle’ re­spec­tively. Bhai Ran­jit Singh is a for­mer Jathedar of Akal Takht Sahib.

There are 4 seats where SAD Delhi is not con­test­ing, in which there seems to be an in­for­mal tie-up be­tween the Sar­nas and Man­jit Singh GK. Four seats, one of Greater Kailash where Man­jit Singh GK is the can­di­date and the other of Kalkaji where Har­jit Singh, brother of Man­jit Singh GK is con­test­ing, the Sar­nas-Ran­jit Singh al­liance have not fielded any­one.  In Shakti Na­gar and Tilak Vi­har also there are no Sar­nas-Bhai Ran­jit Singh can­di­dates.  Sim­i­larly, Man­jit Singh GK too has not fielded any­one from Pun­jabi Bagh -the hot seat where Harvin­der Singh Sarna takes on Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa. Sim­i­larly, no can­di­dates have been fielded by Man­jit Singh GK in Fateh Na­gar, Janakpuri, and Jang­pura.

JAGO party of Man­jit Singh GK, who has the sup­port of Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa -a for­mer Badal Dal leader and now the Pres­i­dent of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (De­mo­c­ra­tic) is con­test­ing 41 seats with the sym­bol ‘Book’, The Sikh Sadb­havna Dal of Dar­bar Sahib Raagi Bhai Baldev Singh Wadala is con­test­ing 33 seats on the sym­bol ‘Table Lamp’. The Pan­thak Sewa Dal led by Hardit Singh Gob­ind­puri is con­test­ing 27 seats, while cu­ri­ously the Aam Akali Dal is not con­test­ing any seat.

As many as 189 can­di­dates are from the 6 reg­is­tered groups and 121 are in­de­pen­dent, with only 17 fe­male can­di­dates. In­ter­est­ingly, the num­ber of fe­male vot­ers is 171,370 and Male Vot­ers is 170695, with women vot­ers hav­ing a slen­der lead. 

DS­GMC pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa of the Badal Dal is pit­ted against the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi stal­wart Harvin­der Singh Sarna.

Con­stituency-wise, the star fight will be for the Pun­jabi Bagh con­stituency where the DS­GMC pres­i­dent Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa of the Badal Dal is pit­ted against the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi stal­wart Harvin­der Singh Sarna. This con­stituency sees a max­i­mum of 12 can­di­dates from amongst all the 46 seats.

For­mer DS­GMC pres­i­dent Man­jit Singh GK, who formed his own party Jag Aasra Teri Ott (Jathedar San­tokh Singh), faces Cha­ran­jit Singh (son of Sha­heed Ke­har Singh who went to the gal­lows in the Mrs In­dira Gandhi case) of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Badal).

The Kalkaji con­stituency will wit­ness only 3 con­test­ing can­di­dates, the low­est among all. Here, nei­ther the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Delhi nor the Pan­thik Akali Lehar has fielded any con­tes­tant. Harmeet Singh Kalka of Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Badal and cur­rent Sec­re­tary of DS­GMC is fac­ing Hardit SIngh Gob­ind­puri, spokesper­son of Pan­thak Sewa Dal along with Har­jit Singh from Jago Party.

Sig­nif­i­cantly, the for­mer pres­i­dent Man­jit Singh GK, who formed his own party Jag Aasra Teri Ott (Jathedar San­tokh Singh), faces Cha­ran­jit Singh (son of Sha­heed Ke­har Singh who went to the gal­lows in the Mrs In­dira Gandhi case) of the Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal (Badal).

Like in many elec­tions for re­li­gious, po­lit­i­cal and so­cial of­fices, Sikh wom­en’s par­tic­i­pa­tion is still min­i­mal, though SGPC has reser­va­tions for women. In the cur­rent DS­GMC polls, there are only 17 women can­di­dates out of a to­tal of 310, which is only 5.48 per cent of the to­tal.

The Jago party has fielded 6, Sikh Sadb­havna Dal 3, Pan­thak Sewa Dal 2, SAD Badal 1 and no women can­di­date by SAD Delhi. There are 6 in­de­pen­dent women can­di­dates.

Two BJP Delhi Mu­nic­i­pal Coun­cil­lors Paramjit Singh Rana and Amar­jit Singh Pappu are also in the fray.

A coun­cil­lor of the Delhi Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion, ow­ing al­le­giance to the Bharatiya Janata Party -Paramjit Singh Rana, who has since been re­moved from the party by the Badal Dal, is a Jago Party can­di­date from the Dev Na­gar con­stituency and Coun­cil­lor Amar­jit Singh Pappu is con­test­ing from Fateh Na­gar as a Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal Badal nom­i­nee.

With elec­tion­eer­ing lim­ited to in­door meet­ings and so­cial me­dia, a cloud of un­cer­tainty shrouds the elec­tion as Delhi Chief Min­is­ter Arvind Ke­jri­wal has warned of a lock­down. As the cli­mate of elec­tions gets af­fected, it will be in­ter­est­ing to watch how many of the vot­ers will come out of their homes to cast their fran­chise.