SGPC alleges registration of 'bogus votes' for committee's polls

Chandigarh, Jan 22 (PTI) The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members on Wednesday expressed anguish at the alleged "large-scale registration of bogus votes" in elections to the apex gurdwara body as well as incomplete voter lists.

SGPC members led by SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami held a meeting here under the chairmanship of SAD working president Balwinder Singh Bhundar and former party president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

The meeting put on record the "large-scale manipulation" in making voter lists for the SGPC elections with members showing data to prove how either the lists had been "inflated with non-Sikhs and even en-bloc addition of names from the assembly constituency voter list", said a party statement.

Badal said a party delegation would meet the Chief Commissioner Gurdwara Elections Surinder Singh Saron on Thursday and apprise him about the complaints vis a vis registration of "bogus votes".

"We will also apprise the chief commissioner that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is trying to rig the gurdwara elections by inflating the voter lists by registering bogus voters and even voters from other religions. The AAP government is trying every trick in the trade to include ineligible voters with the purpose of influencing the elections", he alleged.

Senior leader Daljit Singh Cheema said the SAD delegation would also apprise the Chief Commissioner that a thorough scrutiny of the voter lists was needed.

"We will also appeal for extending the time for registration of fresh voters as a large number of eligible voters are yet to be included in the voter lists", he said.

The delegation would also submit evidence about "en masse registration of ineligible voters" to the Gurdwara Elections office even as party leaders will approach their respective sub divisional magistrates to call for deletion of all ineligible voters.

The Gurdwara Election Commission is yet to announce the schedule for the SGPC polls. PTI CHS NB NB