SGPC poll row: SAD expels Jagir Kaur from primary membership

CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal, led by Sukhbir Singh Badal, expelled Bibi Jagir Kaur on Monday from its primary membership for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities and conspiracy to break the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
The SAD disciplinary committee also released a ‘sting’ audio to prove the alleged involvement of National Minority Commission chairman Iqbal Singh Lalpura in approaching the SGPC members ahead of the Sikh body elections on November 9. The disciplinary committee chief Sikander Singh Maluka said disciplinary action had been taken against Kaur after exhausting all options, including giving her an opportunity to present her point of view through a personal hearing on Monday.
Maluka said Kaur had started preparing to contest the SGPC polls three months ago by approaching the SGPC members. Akali leaders Daljit Singh Cheema and Surjit Singh Rakhra had approached her and urged her to abide by party discipline and unity. “Even SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal apprised her about the viewpoint of SGPC members and counselled her not to insist on contesting the polls,” he added.
But Kaur was adamant to contest the polls and started calling up and meeting SGPC members for their support, Maluka said, and added that the party got complaints from SGPC members that BJP leader Lalpura was calling up members on the phone to solicit support for Kaur. On the basis of the complaint as well as the report submitted by the two-member SAD team which met her, Kaur was suspended from the party. Kaur had questioned the formation of the disciplinary committee by the SAD president after the party working committee, of which she is a member, gave Sukhbir the requisite rights to take decisions. SAD disciplinary committee member Virsa Singh Valtoha released a purported ‘sting’ on Amritsar-based BJP leader professor Sarchand Singh, in which the latter can be heard telling SGPC member Surjit Singh Bhittewad that he would arrange his (Bhittewad) meeting with Lalpura. Valtoha claimed that in the ‘sting’ Sarchand also offered to bribe SGPC members to secure their votes. The ‘sting’ has proved that the BJP and Lalpura were not only interfering in the elections for the SGPC president’s post but also approaching members to secure votes for Kaur, he claimed. Valtoha has demanded a probe into the phone call records of both Sarchand and Lalpura to ascertain the extent of the conspiracy to break the SGPC.