SGPC get Longowal as its President

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) General House has elected former SAD MLA from Dhuri Gobind Singh Longowal its president during its annual general house meeting. Interestingly, Gobind Singh Longowal  was declared a ‘Tankhahia’ early this year. He wassentenced and punished for violating the Sikh code of edicts by Akal Takht earlier this year after he was found to have canvassed votes from Dera Sacha Sauda during the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections.

Longowal — a former chairman of Sangrur district planning board — got 154 of 169 votes, beating his rival Amrik Singh Shahpur of Dera Baba Nanak. Bibi Jagir Kaur had proposed Longowal name for the position.

However, Shahpur later was included in the 11-member executive body after some members of the body insisted. SGPC, which had already announced its 11-member executive body, had to remove one member —Jarnail Singh Kartarpur — from its list.

Longowal won from Dhuri assembly seat in by elections held in 2015, beating Congress and Sanjha Morcha candidate Simar Partap Singh, grandson of former chief minister Surjit Singh Barnala.

SGPC also elected Gurbachan Singh Karmowala its general secretary, while Raghujit Singh and Harpal Singh were elected its senior vice-president and junior vice-president.

Also in the same meeting, the body passed a resolution criticising the central government’s move to change of the name of Delhi University’s Dyal Singh Majithia Evening College Delhi University to Vande Matram Morning College.