An unexplained spurt in the enrolment of Sikhs as voters for the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee elections expected to be held sometime in 2011, has sparked protest within the community with some groups accusing Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal of registering large numbers of “bogus” voters.
A total of 52,36,475 voters have enrolled for the coming Sikh shrines management committee polls this time in Punjab, which is nearly two lakh and up from the 50,54,617 that registered for the last elections. Haryana too witnessed a similar trend with 3,07,236 enrolments versus only 2,86,707 earlier. Himachal Pradesh, conversely, saw nearly a 50 per cent decline from 15,407 in 2004 to just 7,200 voters. A roughly 20 per cent decline has also been seen in Chandigarh according to figures made available by the Gurudwara Election Commission.
Created by an act of Parliament, all adult men and women professing faith in Sikhism and adhering to the five K’s ordained by the Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, are eligible and can register as voters to elect the general house of what is recognised as the most influential Sikh committee.