Shiromani Akali Dal alleges registration of bogus voters for SGPC polls
- Posted: January 24, 2025
- Updated: 01:37 am
DW BUREAU / Chandigarh
A Shiromani Akali Dal delegation met the chief commissioner of the Gurdwara Elections Commission on Thursday, alleging the registration of "bogus votes" for the upcoming polls of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
The delegation urged the chief commissioner to extend the process for registration of voters for the general elections of SGPC, the apex gurdwara body, to March 31, and to weed out all "bogus votes".
The delegation, which included SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar, former president Sukhbir Singh Badal, SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami, and senior party leader Daljit Singh Cheema, met Gurdwara Elections Commission Chief Commissioner Justice (retd) Surinder Singh Saron. Speaking to the media, Cheema alleged that there had been large-scale registration of "bogus votes" for the SGPC elections. "Thousands of bogus votes have been registered," he claimed.
In a memorandum to the chief commissioner, Badal alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had "directed" booth level officers to register votes en masse from voter lists due to which "thousands of non-Sikhs" had been given the voting right for the elections.
He claimed that besides this, genuine votes were being deleted even as "bogus votes" were being added as part of the conspiracy to take over control of the SGPC "by hook or by crook". Badal urged the chief commissioner to issue directions for the review of all voter lists so that bogus votes could be weeded out. He also appealed for extending the time period for making new voter list, saying a large number of eligible voters had been left out from the election process. Badal also gave the example of Himachal Pradesh where the voter list had also not been made till now.
SAD leader Cheema said the party stood for registration of genuine voters but it was condemnable that "the AAP government was coming in the way of this exercise".
He said the situation was such that "thousands of non-Sikhs" who had not applied to be registered as voters for the elections had been given this right.
He said the delegation had also apprised the chief commissioner about the 'Sikh rehat maryada' (Sikh code of conduct) under which it is compulsory to suffix 'Singh' or 'Kaur' after names.
"We have submitted voter lists to the Commission in which the names of voters are in contravention to the Sikh 'rehat maryada'," said Cheema. "A significant number of votes without the 'Singh' and 'Kaur' suffixes have been added to the voter lists. We provided the voter lists where 'Singh' and 'Kaur' were missing after names," he said.
(editor@dailyworld.in)