Over 51 lakh voters enrol for SGPC general poll
A total of 51.04 lakh applications were received from Sikh aspirants from Punjab who claimed their eligibility to vote in the ensuing general elections of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), also known as the Mini Parliament of Sikhs. The last date for voters' enrolment was October 31.
In the last SGPC elections in 2011, 52.69 lakh eligible voters were registered in Punjab, 3.37 lakh in Haryana, 23,011 in Himachal Pradesh and 11,932 in Chandigarh.
An official said the final count of ‘eligible’ voters registered would be known after a scrutiny of the applications. “It will be a time-consuming exercise to shortlist the voters complying with the conditions and eligibility criteria to vote for the SGPC polls. Still, the figure reaches the expected mark compared to 2011, if the exclusion of over 3 lakh Haryana Sikh voters is any indication,” he said.
Haryana Sikhs would not be eligible as they have constituted a separate ad hoc Sikh body under the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Act, 2014.
Amritsar tops the list with 5.76 lakh applications. As per data of the Chief Election Gurdwara Commission, till October 25, the second highest applications were received at Ludhiana (5.70 lakh), followed by Gurdaspur (4.37 lakh), Tarn Taran (3.18 lakh), Patiala (2.91 lakh), Sangrur (2.79 lakh), Sri Muktsar Sahib (2.66 lakh), Moga (2.59 lakh), Jalandhar (2.29 lakh), Mansa (1.90 lakh), Bathinda (1.90 lakh), SAS Nagar (1.64 lakh), Hoshiarpur (1.60 lakh), Barnala (1.46 lakh), Roopnagar (1.39 lakh), Kapurthala (1.38 lakh), Fatehgarh Sahib (1.21 lakh), Fazilka (1.12 lakh), Faridkot (1.02 lakh), Malerkotla (75,057) and SBS Nagar (58,664).
The electoral lists from HP and Chandigarh were awaited.
The voter registration process was started on October 21 last year. Following lukewarm response and several discrepancies in the registration process, the last date was extended from November 15, 2023, to February 29. Thereafter, the date was extended to April 30, then to July 31, September 16 and October 31.
