Did political necessity compel Sukhbir Singh Badal to replace SGPC chief?

New Delhi: What if it is not the political desperation of Akali’s that it has to shift the first women head of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Jagir Kaur, to the political arena? In the recently concluded elections for the president of Shiromani Akali Dal backed SGPC, the SAD (B) inclined SGPC member Surjit Singh Bhittewind had proposed the name of SGPC’s Honorary Chief Secretary Harjinder Singh Dhami, an advocate, for the post of president of the Sikh’s single largest representative body.

Dhami is also known to be a loyalist of the Badal family and was first elected as General Secretary of SGPC in 2019 and was elected as the Honorary Chief Secretary a year later.

Since the SAD (B) has the majority in SGPC’s General House, Dhami easily won the elections by trouncing his opponent candidate Mithu Singh Kahankae with a margin of 103 votes. While Dhami received 122 votes, Kahanke got 19 votes.

Within a fraction of a second of the announcement of Dhami’s name as the new president of SGPC, SAD(B) spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema announced Jagir Kaur as party candidate from Bholath.

He said, "SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal announced two more party candidates. Bibi Jagir Kaur, former president of SGPC will contest from Bholath and Bikram Singh Majithia, former cabinet minister will contest from Majitha assembly constituency."

Sources in SAD (B) told Zee Media that "there is too much at stake in the next elections, every single seat matters for the party,  in any case, SGPC will be with us but Bibi Jagir Kaur can make a lot of difference in Bholath assembly constituency".

Notably, during the 2017 Punjab assembly elections, the then AAP candidate Sukhpal Singh Khaira had won from the Bholath assembly constituency which was earlier represented by Bibi Jagir Kaur, who is also the head of the Dera Baba Prem Singh Murale Wale, Begowal and has huge followership among Lubana’s.

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