New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS): Voting for the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) at 46 municipal wards on Sunday saw a 39 per cent turnout, lower than last time's 45 per cent.

"The elections was held peacefully at all 546 polling booths. We are yet to receive booth wise or ward wise data," DSGMC member Inder Mohan Singh said.

He said that there could be various reasons why voting percentage was lower than the the last elections.

"It was expected that the voting percentage would cross 50 per cent but it recorded the lowest at 39 per cent. There could be three-four reasons why a smaller number of people came out to vote. One, because of Raksha Bandhan festival, second, due to fear of Covid and the third reason may be that people of the Sikh community have not shown much interest in DSGMC elections because of several incidents of corruptions were reported in the last few years," Singh said.

A total of nearly 3.42 lakh Delhi residents, belonging to the Sikh community, formed the electorate for this election, against nearly 3.86 lakh for the previous elections.

According to a senior DSGMC member, a total of 92,000 names were removed from the voters list prepared for this year's elections while 48,000 new names had been added.

Out of total 312 candidates in the fray, 180 were from five registered parties, while 132 were independents.

The five registered parties include the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), the Jag Aasra Guru Ott (JAGO) of former DSGMC President Manjeet Singh G.K., and the SAD (Delhi) led by Paramjit Singh Sarna, who has an alliance with former Akal Takht Jathedar Ranjeet Singh-led Panthic Akali Lehar.

Delhi's Directorate of Gurdwara Elections had deployed 23 returning officers and 46 assistant returning officers to conduct the elections.

Counting of votes will take place on August 25.

The first DSGMC election was held in 1974 after the establishment of the Directorate of Gurdwara Elections under the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Act, 1971.