Gurcharan Singh Tohra was president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee for nearly twenty-five years across four decades, in four separate terms between 1973 and 2004, the longest tenure anyone has held.
That made him one of the two or three most powerful people in Sikh institutional life for a generation, controlling the appointment of jathedars, the budget of the shrines and a very large patronage network.
He came from the communist-influenced Punjab left before moving into Akali politics and kept a distinctive position within it, repeatedly at odds with the Badal leadership.
He was present in the Golden Temple complex during Operation Blue Star in June 1984 and was detained afterward.
His career is the clearest illustration of the structural point made elsewhere on this site: that the SGPC is a religious authority filled by a political election, and that whoever controls it controls a great deal more than a set of buildings.
The SGPC controls the gurdwaras, their income, their schools and colleges, and the appointments to the takhts. Its president heads the largest religious institution in the state and the position is elected.
He was in and out of alliance with Parkash Singh Badal for three decades, and the rivalry between the two men structured Akali politics from the 1970s to the 2000s.
He was arrested after Blue Star and held for a long period. He died in 2004.