AMRITSAR: Gurcharan Singh Tohra, the candidate of the Akali Dal (Amritsar) reaffirmed his supremacy in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPO) onNov.25 by defeating the Akali Dal (Badal) candidate, Prem Singh Lalpura, by a margin of 38 votes.

Tohra, who was first elected to this coveted post in 1973, received 66 votes while his rival got just 28. Out of 95 total polled votes one was declared invalid.

this is the 20th time that Tohra was reelected the chief of the SGPC. Since 1973, Tohra has reigned supreme in the SGPC except in 1986 when Kabul Singh was elected the president and then in 1990 when Baldev Singh Sibia was elected to head this body.

The annual elections to elect the president and office bearers an¢ executive members of the SGPC began in a tense atmosphere inside Teja Singh Samundan hall inside the Golden Temple complex here last Friday. However tensions eased after Tohra was declared elected in the general house meeting and leaders of the

Badal faction who themselves had predicted before the start of the meeting that they would not receive more than 30 votes, accepted Lalpura’s defeat graciously and quietly left the venue of the meeting.

Later, Dalip Singh Mullanangal, Bhajan Singh Abulkhurana and Darshan Singh Issapur were unani mously elected the senior vicepresident, junior vicepresi dent and the general secretary respectively of the SGPC for a year’s term. All the three are close confidants of Tohra and his longtime associates.

The choice of these three office bearers was left to Tohra after Kuldip Singh Wadala of the Akali Dal (Badal) had on behalf of his party expressed the desire of not entering into a contest for these posts.

Those who were chosen to the 11member executive were: Baldey Sibia, a former SGPC president, BaldeyMalpur, Gurmej Shoora, Sukhbir Sultanwind, Mukhtiar Dharamkot, Gopal Bhudladha, Saroop Jalandhar and Swinder Nagla  all belonging to the Tohra faction.

Hardalbir Shah, Charanjit Faridkot and Balbir Massampura ofthe Badal faction were also chosen to the executive. These three names were forwarded to Tohra by Wadala after the SGPC supreme announced his desire to accommodate three members of the Badal faction into the executive body.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 2, 1994