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Finally, Fremont
sangat chucks out old guard
Sadh Sangat-United Sikh Alliance bag four of five positions
WSN Network
REMONT: In a
major victory and a landmark development in gurdwara management in
the United States, the candidates of the Sadh Sangat Slate and the
United Sikh Alliance have scored a major win in the elections to the
Supreme Council of Gurdwara at Fremont. Lead by Bhai Jaswinder Singh
Jandi, the group bagged four of the five posts, trouncing the
faction that had been holding on to the gurdwara's management for
the last three years.
The four winners
of Sadh Sangat Slate and United Sikh Alliance were Bhai Jaswinder
Singh Jandi, Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa, Bhai Davinder Singh Chana and
Bibi Gurbaksh Kaur Kahlon. The only candidate of the Panthic Slate
who could win was Bhai Ram Singh himself, already an incumbent
member of the Supreme Council, while all other four members of his
Slate tasted defeat.
The fifth member
fielded by the Bhai Jandi group, Bhai Satnam Singh Khalsa, lost by a
margin of mere seven votes, because of cross voting and ended at
number six position.
The results for
the March 9 balloting were announced last Sunday to the sangat
during a diwan in the afternoon.
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Meddlemen’s saga
The post-balloting phase saw some meddling by people more
interested in stoking the fires of factionalism and making wild
allegations once it had become clear that the Bhai Jaswinder
Singh Jandi group was winning. Most such people are those whose
livelihood depends on such stratagems and they were keen to
somehow push for a re-vote, but thankfully all the saner
elements maintained harmony and ensured that the polling process
got over peacefully.
They incited some sections to go to the court also but
eventually were forced to bow before the will of the sangat and
thus had to join the counting process and agree to the results
presented before the sangat.
A total of 3901 votes were polled while the register
reflected only 3899 voters, thus leading to an aberration of two
votes. It seemed that because of the crowds, the staff
maintaining the register failed to tick mark these two names.
There was no malafide involved. The number of printed ballot
paper, polled votes and left over ballots all matched.
Those still
objecting to the process finally chose to reinvestigate 268
voters. The Bhai Jandi slate, Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal and
representatives of other slates gave their nod to whatever steps
satisfied the doubting men. Of the 236 who could be contacted,
234 testified that they had themselves cast the votes. It was
then that the process finally moved ahead and results were
announced on Sunday. |
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 The supervisors
for the election process briefed the sangat about the election
process and arrangements and asked Bhai Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal to
read out the results.
President of the
outgoing committee Karnail Singh Gill thanked the sangat for its
cooperation and assured cooperation to the incoming new Supreme
Council. Later, each of the winners also addressed the sangat.
Bhai Jaswinder
Singh Jandi set the tone by saying that the outgoing Supreme Council
members will be honored next Sunday for their services. Bibi
Gurbaksh Kaur Kahlon termed it the victory of the sangat while Bhai
Devinder Singh Chana said once the elections are over, those elected
become the representatives of not any particular group but of the
entire sangat. Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa also stressed the need for
unity.
 Bhai Ram Singh
thanked the sangat for the cooperation received during his last
tenure and assured that he will work jointly with the new team. The
Khalsa Slate led by Bhai Gurmeet Singh Khalsa and the California
Sikh Organization slate suffered maximum damage to their standing
since all their candidates lost the elections. The two Independent
candidates were nowhere near victory margins.
Interestingly,
Bhai Ram Singh was backed by Akali Dal (Amritsar)'s Mann group, and
workers of the Mann-led party showed much proactivity in canvassing
openly for Bhai Ram Singh as a mark of their opposition to Sikh
Youth of America.
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Bhai
Jaswinder Singh Jandi: 1400
Nirmal Singh Khalsa: 1393
Devinder Singh Chana: 1355
Bhai Ram Singh: 1343
Bibi Gurbaksh Kaur: 1278
Satnam Singh Khalsa: 1271
Mohinder Singh Johl: 1204
Tara Singh Gill: 1192
Harpreet Singh Bains: 1183
Aala Singh Bhogal: 1139
Bhai Gurmeet Singh Khalsa: 924
Sarabjit Kaur Cheema: 915
Pritpal Singh: 773
Shankar Singh: 716
Rattan Singh: 716
Gurcharan Singh Mann: 542
Surinder Singh: 503
Tarlochan Singh Nahal: 481
Pardeep Singh: 430
Jasdev Singh: 419
Independent candidates:
Jagraj Singh Dhaliwal 69; Tejbahadur Singh 29 |
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