Thanks a ton members for supporting me and giving me 29 per cent votes in the presidential polls. Dear members,
Thanks a lot for your support to the principles for which I contested the 2008-10 Press Club, Mumbai polls.
I thank you once again for giving me 29 per cent of votes in the Presidential polls.
I do respect the verdict and congratulate all the winners.
Kindly also allow me to thank you , all the Club members, who participated in Friday’s Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of the Club on July 25 , 2008 and the polls held the following day.
Similarly, I thank all such non-voter members of the Club and other journalist colleagues in Mumbai and elsewhere in the country, who evinced interest in the issues involved in the club elections, which we highlighted through this blog and other ways.
For your kind information, I had contested in this election as an independent candidate for the President’s post as also for the Managing Committee --- without any support or backing from the ruling panel of the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA)-led by the Club's outgoing secretary Gurbir Singh and the opposition panel of Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD)-led by the outgoing Internal Auditor G Vishwanath.
The PDA, which had not put up its candidate for the post of President for reasons best known to it, had tacitly supported Pradeep Vijayakar for this post. The FDD had declared Mr Vijayakar as its candidate for the post. Mr Vijayakar was declared re-elected as President for the second consecutive two-year term.
Out of 430 of total 711 votes polled in this election, 22 votes were declared invalid for the post of President. Mr Vijayakar secured as many as 297 votes, while I polled 110 votes in the Presidential polls.
Leaders of both the PDA and the FDD functionaries now say that even 110 votes that I secured was because of the “CONFUSION” among the voters, that it was by “DEFAULT”, as the PDA did not put up its candidate for the post and that I was seen in the company of FDD leaders.
Well, it is not my job to explain as to why the PDA had not fielded its candidate for the post of President.
An SMS message sent by the PDA to the voters on Sunday (July 27, 2008) claimed that it has won all the office bearers’ posts. It is now for the PDA to explain as to how it can make such a claim since it had not put its presidential candidate, let alone winning the president’s post. Or is the PDA suggesting that Mr Vijayakar was as much their candidate as he was of the FDD? Or does the PDA nurse the feeling that it can run the work the club without the President?
Strangely enough, Mr Vijayakar did not either actively campaign for the FDD panel or issue any statement himself that he was a FDD candidate and had nothing to do with PDA. All the same, it is not for me to question Mr Vijayakar for the stand he took in the polls.
However, I do have a question for both the FDD and PDA leaders: How do they explain the fact that I secured 90 votes in the Managing Committee Members’ poll, despite the fact that both the panels had put up their full quota of 10 candidates each.
While I respect the verdict, I intend to come out with some startling revelation in the coming days on the questionable manner in which Returning Officer Jatin Desai conducted the club polls. To say the least, the polls were not so free and fair as they ought to have been. Please do look out for my revelation.
CPJha
The Press Club, Mumbai , Membership No. 388
Mumbai
