Congress' 'conspiracy' to gain SGPC's control exposed: SAD

A day after the Punjab Assembly authorised Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to take up the SGPC poll issue with the Centre, the SAD Friday alleged that the Congress' "deep rooted conspiracy" to take over the Sikh body was exposed.

Dakha lawmaker H S Phoolka, who had resigned as MLA last year, raised the issue of delay in elections of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex religious body of the Sikhs during the Budget Session on Thursday.

The SGPC elections are pending since 2016.

"The Congress party has now come out in the open to capture the Sikh religious body after failing in its previous attempts through dummy organisations," SAD Senior Vice President and Spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said here.

"One fails to understand how a state legislature can decide about the future of a democratic institution which has been designated as 'Inter State body corporate'," he added.

SGPC elections are conducted by the Union government in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. In addition, 15 members are co opted from different states of India, said Cheema in a statement.

The SGPC is governed by an Act enacted by Parliament and any state legislature cannot interfere in its working, he said reacting to the state assembly passing a resolution on Thursday urging the Centre to appoint a chief commissioner of the gurdwara elections for holding the polls at the earliest.

The Shiromani Aakali Dal (SAD) spokesperson alleged that since the last few decades, the Congress was allegedly trying to "capture" the Sikh body through its "puppets".

"It has always fielded its candidates by raising different fronts in elections conducted during all these years but the Sikh masses have completely rejected these dummy candidates of the Congress," he said.

After failing in its earlier attempts, the Congress has now come out in the open to contest the elections with the agenda to capture the body and surprisingly it has roped in the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as its ally, he said.

It is unfortunate to see both the parties have "used" the pious platform of state assembly to push their "agenda" forward, he added.

Cheema also said that the SAD was ready to contest the elections whenever they will be held as per Constitution but the Congress' claim of being a secular party stands exposed.