Harjinder Singh Dhami re-elected SGPC president for fifth time
Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal nominee defeats breakaway SAD faction’s Mitthu Singh Kahneke by 101 votes.
Harjinder Singh Dhami, 69, was re-elected Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president for the fifth consecutive time during the annual elections held in Amritsar on Monday.
Dhami, the nominee of the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal, got 117 of the 136 votes polled, while his opponent, Mitthu Singh Kahneke of the breakaway SAD faction, led by Giani Harpreet Singh, managed to get 18 votes. One vote was declared invalid.
The other office-bearers and 11 executive committee members were elected unanimously. The office-bearers are Raghujit Singh Virk senior vice-president, Baldev Singh Kalyan junior vice-president and Sher Singh Mandwala general secretary.
The executive committee members are: Surjit Singh Garhi, Surjit Singh Tugalwala, Surjit Singh Kang, Gurpreet Singh Jhabbar, Diljeet Singh Bhindar, Bibi Harjinder Kaur, Baldev Singh Kaimpuri, Major Singh Dhillon, Mangwinder Singh Khaparkhedi, Jungbahadur Singh Rai and Mitthu Singh Kahneke.
Dhami, who has been serving as president since 2021, said that the renewed trust placed in him by the party leadership is a matter of pride but it also increases his sense of responsibility.
The elections were held during the SGPC general house meeting at Teja Singh Samundri Hall in the Golden Temple complex. A resolution passed by the general house demanded that the Union government express regret in Parliament for the anti-Sikh riots in November 1984 and declare it “genocide”.
In the 2024 polls, Dhami defeated his rival and three-time SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, who was fielded by the then rebel faction of the SAD, by 74 votes. Of the total 142 votes polled, SAD candidate Dhami had got 107 while Kaur got 33. Two votes had been declared invalid.
Of 191 members in the House, 170 are elected by Sikh voters in the general elections, 15 are co-opted, five are sitting (jathedars) heads of Sikh temporal seats and one is head granthi of Golden Temple. The jathedars and head granthis don’t have the right to vote.
There are a total of 110 constituencies in Punjab, out of which 47 segments are represented by two members each, while 30 constituencies are reserved for women candidates. Even as a separate Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (HSGMC) has also been formed, SGPC members elected from Haryana state are also part of the House and participate in the elections every year.
As the general elections of the SGPC have not been conducted for the last 14 years, nearly 31 members have expired and two have resigned.
