Harjinder Singh Dhami favourite for SGPC top post

Tribune News Service

GS Paul

Amritsar, November 1

The upcoming election to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has put the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in a tough situation, if the defiant tone of three-time president of the apex Sikh body Bibi Jagir Kaur is any indication.

SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami had called a General House meeting on November 9 to decide upon the body for the next annual term while snubbing Bibi’s proposal to postpone the date in the wake of Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary that falls a day prior.

While Bibi is determined to ‘contest’ for the coveted top post of the apex Sikh body, insiders say Dhami is the frontrunner. A law graduate, Dhami has been an SGPC member since 1996 and also served as the general secretary in 2019. He is known for his clean image, good administrative skills and warm nature.

SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had conducted a meeting with the Majha zone SGPC members in Amritsar recently in which the members showed allegiance with Dhami and desired to let him continue to head the Sikh body. It is also known that the members also discussed the visible ‘pressure tactics’ by Bibi and demanded action if she goes out of the purview of the party.

Seeming to have challenged the ‘monopoly’ of the Badal family and the alleged precedent of ‘lifafa’ (envelope), which contained the name of their choice, Bibi has already started the exercise to keep SGPC members in loop, including the anti-Badal lot.

An opposition member Baba Gurpreet Singh Randhawe wale said: “We will decide in a day or two about our strategy.” SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said: “On our part, we made efforts to pacify Bibi in the interest of the party. Any anti-party move would be taken care of by the disciplinary panel of the party”.

Bibi, who headed the Sikh body in 1999, 2004 and 2020, said: “What’s wrong, if I had expressed my desire for the SGPC president’s post again? Since I am not holding any political office, I intend to perform ‘sewa’ on religious front and I have conveyed it to the party’s leadership.”

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