Setback to Badals as Shiromani Akali Dal out of Delhi gurdwara panel elections

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is a former deputy chief minister of Punjab, failed to give the undertaking, leading to the seizure of the party’s poll symbol

In a setback to the Badal-led Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Delhi gurdwara elections department on Wednesday said that the party is not eligible to contest the April 25 Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections as it had failed to give an undertaking that it’s a religious party.

The gurdwara elections department had recently issued an order that only registered religious parties will be allotted symbols to contest the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections. (HT file photo)

“The SAD’s party symbol of bucket has been seized. This means it is not in the fray for the DSGMC elections,” department director Narinder Singh said a day after seeking an undertaking from the SAD that it is a religious party.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is a former deputy chief minister of Punjab, failed to give the undertaking, leading to the seizure of the party’s poll symbol.

Narinder Singh, however, said that the SAD can field its candidates as independents in all 46 wards and will have to seek individual symbols from the returning officer of each ward.

Reacting to the development, SAD leader Balwinder Singh Bhunder said, “The AAP government in Delhi doesn’t want the SAD to contest the elections, that’s why it has manipulated the orders. Our candidates will contest the elections even if it is as independents.”

Meanwhile, the filing of nominations for the DSGMC elections began on Wednesday.

On March 19, the gurdwara elections department had issued an order that only registered religious parties will be allotted symbols to contest the DSGMC elections. This means only religious parties, registered as a religious society under the Societies Registration Act at least a year before the DSGMC elections, would be eligible to contest the elections.