Punjab: Harjinder Singh Dhami Elected SGPC President For Third Time

Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Harjinder Singh Dhami was re-elected Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president on Wednesday.

The SGPC, which is known as the mini-parliament of the Sikhs, is a representative body of Sikhs living across the world.

Scoring a hat-trick, Dhami won the election with a convincing victory over former SAD rebel legislator Balbir Singh Ghunas. Of the total 137 votes polled, Dhami got 118 while Ghunas got 17; two votes were declared invalid. Of the total 151 members, 139 had turned up to take part in the election process for the top post of the apex gurdwara body.

According to media reports, while Harbhajan Singh Masana was elected, unopposed, as senior vice president, Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa and Rajender Singh Mehta were elected as junior vice-president and general secretary, respectively.

Dhami, 67, hails from Hoshiarpur district, is a Badal family loyalist and has been SGPC member since 1996. He has been SGPC president for two consecutive terms since 2021 and had replaced Bibi Jagir Kaur, the first woman to be elected president of the SGPC.