The Shiromani Akali Dal led by Parkash Singh Badal maintained its winning streak and romped home in the elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) today. Though the official announcement would be made on July 15, results indicated that Badal’s tally could touch 145 seats in the 170-member house.Barring Sangrur and Ropar, where Simranjeet Singh Mann and Ravi Inder Singh managed to avoid the onslaught, the decimation of the Panthic Morcha looks complete. All six seats in Mutksar, all five in Faridkot district, nine in Jalandhar, four in Kapurthala were indicative of the majority that Badal enjoys.In the outgoing House, the Mann and Tohra factions had a combined strength of over three dozen, but with Tohra rejoining Badal, the Opposition had fizzled out. The results indicate that except for minor pockets in home districts of Morcha leaders, the attempt to throw up an alternative to Badal has failed once again.The Panthic Morcha, an alliance which rears its head every time an election is round the corner in Punjab, has now lost the Assembly, Lok Sabha and SGPC elections in a row. At the most, the Morcha and Independents are expected to touch two dozen seats.Prominent candidates who won include former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur, Kabul Singh and Sukhdev Singh Bhaur. Harbans Singh Manjhpur, who belonged to the Tohra faction, however, lost the election. In Amritsar, Onkar Singh Sharifpura won the seat. Prominent losers included Amarinder Singh from Chandigarh who lost to party rebel Gurpartap Singh Riar. Hardeep Singh, a Morcha candidate, won from Mohali.Sangrur, Malerkotla, Sunam, Dirba, Dhuri and one seat in Ludhiana went to the Panthic Morcha. From Ropar, barring one candidate, the Morcha won all the seats.In Doaba, barring the loss of Manjhpur, Badal candidates romped home in all the seats. Bibi Jagir Kaur won from Bholath with a margin of 10,000 votes, while Jarnail Singh Wahib won by 23,000 votes from Phagwara.The results were particularly bad for Prem Singh Chandumajra, whose newly floated Akali Dal (Longowal) failed to take the lead in his own home district of Patiala.The results would be announced on July 15, and the general body would meet afterwards to elect its new president and executive body. Elections were not held for three seats, as they were postponed.
