Power shift after 10 years
The Progressive Group led by advocate Daljeet Singh Chhabra has won the top three posts of Jullundur Gymkhana Club, elections for which were held on Sunday.
The Progressive Group led by advocate Daljeet Singh Chhabra has won the top three posts of Jullundur Gymkhana Club, elections for which were held on Sunday.
Advocate Daljit Singh Chhabra defeated Satish Thakur Gora by 85 votes to be elected as honourary secretary of the club; for the joint secretary's post Gulshan Kumar Sharma defeated Tarun Sikka by 414 votes; Narinder Singh Shergill was elected treasurer by defeating Amrik Singh Ghai by 310 votes.
Counting for the 10 posts of executive members was on, returning officer Iqbal Singh Sandhu told HT and had not been completed till the filing of the report.
Previously, both factions of the group, 'The Progressive Group' and the 'Gora Group' had induldged in intense campaigning to woo voting members of the club. Gora Group was named after the incumbent secretary Satish Gora. The turnout was low, but a surge in voting was witnessed after lunch and members were seen waiting in the queue to caste their votes, even after 5 pm.
The result can be termed as a major 'upset' in the management of the club, as the 'Gora Group' had bagged the key posts for over the last 10 years.
Gora was contesting to retain the post of the secretary 5th time in arrow, which did not happen. Chabbra had served as an executive member twice.
This was also the first time, when three women candidates were in the fray, two from the Gora group and one from Progressive Group. The outgoing management had only one woman among them.
The candidates were Gulshan Kumar Sharma & Tarun Sikka for Joint Secretary, Daljit Singh Chhabra (Advocate) & Satish Thakur Gora for the post of Honorary Secretary and Amrik Singh Ghai and Narinder Singh Shergill for Treasurer while Amit Kukreja, Arvinder Kau, Dheeraj Seth, Gurpeet Singh Kochar (Major), Mrs. Madhuri (Anu), Pankaj Kapoor, Tajinder Pal Singh (Rahu Sidhu), Raiv Sachdeva (Dimpy) Saurabh Khullar, Shaleen Joshi, Sunita Uppal (Dinky),Survinder Pal Singh Virk, Prof. Vipan Janjhi, Vishal Kakkar and Vivek Gupta. Parminder Singh Panta had been declared the junior vice-president un-opposed.
Both the groups had adopted dinner diplomacy as one of the ways to woo voters and had arranged lavish dinners for their supporters on the eve of the poll.