Amitabh Shukla /
The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) election results in
Even the die hard SAD supporter never thought that the party would sweep the polls, way it has and vanquish all opponents like never before. Winning 157 of the 170 seats and that too when the political temperature is running high due to the Assembly polls has come as a shot in the arm for the SAD-BJP combine in Punjab.
The wave of SAD, which had gone to the polls in alliance with the Sant Samaj, helped the party overhaul its election machinery and make it fighting fit for the bigger battle of February 2012 when the Assembly elections would be held. It also lifted the morale of the party workers who have been bearing with the onslaught of the Congress campaign against the government on a host of issues. SAD had been pitching the elections as the semi-final before next year’s poll – a semi final which they won convincingly.
The polls for the religious body also completely sidelined the hardliners and pro Khalistan elements in Sikh politics and made them irrelevant, some say for all times to come. Simranjit Singh Mann, President of the Akali Dal (
While Congress had stayed away from the polls of SGPC, called the “mini Parliament” of Sikhs, its tacit support to the Panthic Morcha, led by President of the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC), Paramjit Singh Sarna was quite apparent. The Morcha lost badly and in the process its credibility was eroded. Congress was banking on the DSGMC to sway a section of the voters for the assembly polls, the gamble has clearly failed as the results indicated that Sarna has no influence on the Sikh voters of the state. Like most leaders defeated in polls, Sarna too blamed bogus voting and misuse of state machinery for the defeat, an argument which cuts little ice.
Surjit Singh Barnala, who retired as the Governor of Tamil Nadu on the eve of the polls, too could not yield any influence and his party’s association with the Panthic Morcha, a conglomeration of several parties, proved to be damp squib.
Thought the victory of the SAD was a foregone conclusion as the party has been winning the polls ever since the religious body to manage the Gurudwaras and Sikh institutions came into being, the complete annihilation of the opposition just before the assembly polls, has come as a morale booster for the workers of the party.
Prior to the elections, Akali leaders and even their allies, BJP, has been privately saying that anti-incumbency could be a factor in the SGPC polls and the assembly elections ahead. “The manner in which the people have reposed faith in SAD and defeated some of the key figures who would also contest the assembly polls, is a harbinger of the things to come,” a party leader said.
Party Secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said, “results have proved that Sikh masses have completely rejected the Congress led so called Panthic Morcha and reposed full faith in the policies and programmes of SAD. Congress should be well prepared to face a similar humiliating defeat in the coming assembler polls also”.
Given the political implications, Punjab Congress refrained from commenting on the results. “They created such a hype about these elections that at the end of the day they started feeling scared and insecure and thus used and abused all the resources available to them including the government machinery, particularly the Punjab Police, they are controlling”, said PCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh.
SAD President, Sukhbir Singh Badal was quick to react and termed the Congress charges as “show of breast-beating”. “Congress and its front men tried to disrupt poll process by bringing bogus and clean shaven impersonators for casting votes...Instead of indulging in 'the pathetic ravings of political frustration' , everyone in the fray should have shown humility in accepting the verdict of the Khalsa Panth with grace,” he said. (Sept 20, 2011)
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