Sikh Rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Delhi As­sem­bly Strength­ens, Ex­pec­ta­tions High – WSN

The Sikh com­mu­nity in Delhi has made a sig­nif­i­cant mark in the re­cently con­cluded Vid­han Sabha elec­tions, se­cur­ing five out of the 70 As­sem­bly seats. This marks a note­wor­thy mo­ment in the city’s po­lit­i­cal land­scape, as Sikh can­di­dates from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been elected. While Sikhs have his­tor­i­cally held min­is­te­r­ial po­si­tions in Delhi, this elec­tion stands out due to the ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion of the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee (DS­GMC) lead­er­ship, which played a cru­cial role in mo­bi­liz­ing the elec­torate. WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh takes stock and hopes that Sikh in­ter­ests will be served.

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Manjinder Singh Sirsa shares a photo of him with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Facebook in February 2025 after winning the Delhi elections

By Jag­mo­han Singh | World Sikh News |

Bhar­tiya Janata Party leader, holier-than-thou party loy­al­ist, known to toe only the party line, even if it means sac­ri­fic­ing Sikh com­mu­nity in­ter­ests—Man­jin­der Singh Sirsa from Ra­jouri Gar­den, turn­coat lead­ers Tar­winder Singh Mar­wah from Jang­pura, and Arvin­der Singh Lovely from Gandhi Na­gar, along­with third-time win­ner Jar­nail Singh from Tilak Na­gar and son of a for­mer Con­gress leader – Pun­dard­eep Singh Sawh­ney – from Chandni Chowk, rep­re­sent­ing the Aam Aadmi Party are the new Sikh faces in the 2025 Delhi As­sem­bly. Their vic­to­ries sym­bol­ize Sikh po­lit­i­cal en­gage­ment in the cap­i­tal, but they also bring a set of ex­pec­ta­tions from the com­mu­nity that ex­tend be­yond party lines.

A His­toric Po­lit­i­cal En­gage­ment

This elec­tion wit­nessed an un­prece­dented level of Sikh elec­toral par­tic­i­pa­tion, with strong back­ing from DS­GMC lead­ers. This proac­tive in­volve­ment, while lead­ing to elec­toral suc­cess, has also sparked de­bates about the ex­tent to which Sikh in­sti­tu­tions should en­gage in main­stream pol­i­tics. His­tor­i­cally, there has been re­sis­tance to the DS­GM­C’s role in elec­tions, but the re­sults sug­gest that this par­tic­i­pa­tion may be here to stay.

How­ever, while Sikh vot­ers have en­abled these vic­to­ries, an im­por­tant ques­tion lingers: Will these elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives ad­vo­cate for Sikh is­sues be­yond their gen­eral con­stituency re­spon­si­bil­i­ties? Sikh con­cerns, rang­ing from Gur­d­wara gov­er­nance to the pend­ing DS­GMC elec­tions, re­main un­re­solved.

The en­tan­gle­ment of BJP and AAP in a long-stand­ing power strug­gle in Delhi, par­tic­u­larly be­tween the Chief Min­is­ter and the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor, has al­ready de­layed the DS­GMC elec­tions. With the BJP at the helm, at the Cen­tre and in Delhi, the com­mu­nity is watch­ing closely to see if the DS­GMC elec­tions will be con­ducted fairly and trans­par­ently.

Read the full article here.

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