Independents are Key Winners in Haryana Gurdwara Elections

On 19 Jan, the first elections to the office bearers of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) took place with most of the results declared on the same day. The HSGMC was created from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in 2014 to have a separate functional body for Haryana. At that time, the Indian National Congress was in power in the state. Since then, for the last decade, Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power in the state and has repeatedly nominated ad hoc panels to the HSGMC but has never conducted elections. The elections were for 40 seats out of which one candidate, Amanpreet Kaur from Tohana (Ward 25), had been elected unopposed. 164 candidates were in the fray, out of which only 7 were women. Haryana has 356,184 registered Sikh voters, including 190,882 women. The voter turnout was 69.85%. Organisations who fielded candidates were: former HSGMC (ad hoc) president Jagdish Singh Jhinda’s Panthak Dal (Jhinda), former senior vice president Didar Singh Nalvi’s Sikh Samaj Sanstha, Haryana Sikh Panthak Dal (HSPD), and Gurdwara Sangharsh Committee Haryana. Additionally, around 100 candidates contested as independents, some of them were supported by Baljit Singh Daduwal. 21 independents were elected. Jhinda’s Panthak Dal won 11 seats. Shiromani Akali Dal's front in Haryana, the HSPD led by Baldev Singh Kaimpuri, managed to win four seats. Daduwal lost from Kalanwali by over 1.7K votes. He alleged mismanagement in both elections and enrollment of electoral rolls. The rule book says, the majority winning group will nominate nine members to the HSGMC. The 49 members will choose a president and executive body. However, since the majority winners are independents, it needs to be seen how the HSGMC president and executive body will be chosen.