India's Biggest Elected Religious Body Polls Set Stage For 2027 Punjab Battle

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's (SGPC) November 20 election is shaping up to be more than a contest for the president's chair. While Harjinder Singh Dhami is seeking to continue, former President Bibi Jagir Kaur is looking to make a comeback.

Jagir Kaur has indicated that she will return to the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) on November 13, with party president Sukhbir Singh Badal travelling to Begowal, her home constituency, to welcome her.

That timing makes the election a test of two kinds of influence: who can command support inside the SGPC house, and who can help the Akali Dal rebuild its political strength before Punjab votes in 2027. The result may not decide the party's electoral future, but it will offer a revealing measure of where its influence stands.

SGPC members are elected from constituencies across Punjab, in both urban and rural areas. They carry influence in their local communities, giving the body a reach beyond gurdwara management. Their political choices and standing in their regions could therefore matter in the 2027 Assembly elections.

A Return That Changes The Contest

Jagir Kaur's expected return is striking because she has moved through the very divisions now reshaping Akali politics. After differences with the Badal-led party, she joined SAD (Punar Surjit), led by Giani Harpreet Singh. Now she is preparing to return to SAD (Badal), saying she never really left the Akali Dal and was expelled from it.

In conversation with NDTV, Jagir Kaur described herself as still an Akali and said the SGPC needed reform. She also spoke about connecting more people with the Sikh faith, arguing that this could help address conversion concerns and other social challenges. Her return raises an immediate question: will she seek the SGPC presidency, or is her priority to strengthen the party and its position in the house?

Sukhbir Badal is expected to travel to Begowal to meet party workers and welcome Jagir Kaur back into the fold. That is a public signal of her political value. But it also invites scrutiny: is this a reconciliation built around shared principles, or an electoral consolidation ahead of 2027?

Dhami's Fifth Term And The Question Of Continuity

Dhami was elected president for a fifth consecutive term in November 2025, receiving 117 of the 136 votes cast. The contest this year will show whether that support still holds or whether the return of leaders such as Jagir Kaur has altered the equation. Amid growing dissatisfaction with the SGPC's management, some insiders say people are being led to believe that Dhami no longer wants to continue as president.

The SGPC president is chosen by members of the general house, not directly by Sikh voters. The house has 170 elected members, 15 co-opted members and six ex-officio members -- the five jathedars and the head granthi of Sri Darbar Sahib. The jathedars and the head granthi do not vote in the election of office-bearers. Members also elect the vice-presidents, general secretary and executive committee.

That structure makes the November 20 vote an internal contest, but not an inconsequential one. SAD (Badal) holds a majority in the present house. A strong showing would allow the party to project organisational control; a serious challenge would expose the limits of that control at a time when it is trying to bring back leaders who once walked away.

READ | Analysis: Akali Dal's Old Guard Returns, But Can Badals Win Back Punjab?

The Institution Is Bigger Than The Contest

The SGPC was established in Amritsar on November 15, 1920, during the Gurdwara Reform Movement. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 gave it a statutory role in managing gurdwaras and resolving related disputes. The Akali Dal and the SGPC emerged from the same reform movement, but they are distinct. One is a political party, the other a statutory body responsible for gurdwara management. Their shared history helps explain why a leadership contest inside the SGPC is watched so closely in Punjab politics.

Yet the body's institutional legitimacy faces a question that no annual leadership election can answer. The last general election to the SGPC was held in 2011. A legal dispute over voter eligibility delayed the formal constitution of that house; it was restored in 2016 and its five-year term ended in 2021. It has continued until a new board is constituted. The November 20 vote will select office-bearers for the coming year, but it will not refresh the public mandate of the full house.

That long gap matters. Only 136 members voted in the 2025 presidential election. Some seats are now vacant, but the SGPC is still being led by members elected in 2011. So the key question is not only who wins, but how an institution with such reach can regain a current mandate from the Sikh electorate.

Jagir Kaur's Record: Reform, Friction, Unresolved Issues

Jagir Kaur has been SGPC president three times: 1999-2000, 2004-05 and 2020-21. She was the first woman to hold the post. Her record includes efforts to widen women's participation in Sikh religious life, including support for women performing kirtan at the Golden Temple. That effort did not lead to regular women's kirtan there, leaving an important question about how far the SGPC is prepared to carry through reform.

Her terms also coincided with a major dispute over the Nanakshahi calendar. The calendar had been adopted by the SGPC, but disagreements over its implementation brought her into conflict with the then Akal Takht jathedar. The controversy showed how decisions by the SGPC can become disputes over religious authority and Sikh unity, rather than remain administrative matters.

Another episode touched on Sikh pilgrims' access to historic shrines in Pakistan. In 1999, after Pakistan formed its own Sikh gurdwara-management committee, Jagir Kaur opposed recognising it and halted SGPC-organised jathas in protest. She argued that the SGPC should manage the shrines. The disagreement was about authority and representation, but it also affected pilgrimage arrangements for devotees. Pakistan's committee was formed in 1999; after Partition, the SGPC's jurisdiction over gurdwaras in Pakistan had lapsed.

Her public record also includes the case surrounding her daughter Harpreet Kaur's death. Jagir Kaur resigned as SGPC president amid the case and was later acquitted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Any assessment of her past leadership should acknowledge both the controversy and the acquittal.

The Akali Dal's Influence And Its Limits

The SGPC's reach has also changed over time. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee became a separate statutory, locally elected body under the Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1971. Bihar has a separate board for Takht Sri Patna Sahib. Haryana established its own gurdwara committee in 2014, later upheld by the Supreme Court. Rajasthan Sikhs have also sought a separate body, a proposal contested by the SGPC. These developments are not identical, but they show that the SGPC's authority is not uncontested across regions.

Daljit Singh Cheema, SAD's senior vice-president and secretary, said he sees the party growing stronger as former leaders and some SGPC members return. That is the party's argument for the timing: consolidation now could strengthen its hand in the SGPC and ahead of 2027. But the Akali Dal's influence in the house also makes its claim of keeping party politics separate from SGPC affairs harder to sustain.

The November 20 vote will be a measure of more than support for Dhami or any challenger. SGPC members are elected from constituencies across Punjab, including seats reserved for women, and bring influence rooted in different regions of the state. The result will show whether SAD (Badal) can unite that diverse membership behind its leadership and whether Bibi Jagir Kaur's return strengthens the party's reach beyond the SGPC house. The larger test is whether this show of political consolidation can also rebuild public confidence in the Sikh body.