Rigging allegation mars Lodhi Club poll

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 26

The Lodhi Club elections concluded on a controversial note with members alleging rigging and claiming that they will move court against the newly formed administrative body of the club.

In the midst of all this hullabaloo and confusion, Dr Gaurav Sachdeva, who is facing suspension from the Sutlej Club, became the vice-president of the Lodhi Club. Dr Sachdeva defeated Himanshu Ajmani with a huge margin of 641 votes. While Sachdeva polled 1,242 votes, his opponent got 599.

Jogmohan Jain retained his position as general secretary, defeating his arch rival Jogesh Gupta. While Jain secured 979 votes, Gupta bagged 855.

A keen contest was witnessed for the post of joint secretary. Munish Gupta defeated Gurbhej Singh Chhabra with a mere 14 votes to win the post. Gupta polled 922 votes and Chhabra 908.  Chhabra cried foul following the elections and accused the presiding officers of favouring his opponent.

“I will meet the Deputy Commissioner and demand a re-polling. If the administration refuses, then I will take legal opinion for the future course of action,” said Chhabra. “First we were told that 1,862 votes were cast and later we were informed that  1,853 votes had been cast. As many as 23 votes were cancelled which could be the deciding factor,” said  Chhabra. High drama took place after supporters of CA Rohit Gupta alleged rigging. Gupta lost the election for the post of cultural secretary from Vikas Dua by a mere three votes. While Gupta polled 917 votes,  Dua got 920 votes.

Gupta and his supporter Sachin Mahindru, an advocate, said they had asked for a recounting but the presiding officer counted the votes of only one box. “It is a clear-cut case of vote rigging and we will knock the door of the court if Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat fails to resolve the issue,” he said.

Phones used in counting centres 

Candidates, along with their supporters, manged to sneak into the counting centres. Cocking a snook at the administration’s order of banning the use of mobile phones, the candidates were using mobile phones and providing bit-by-bit details of counting process to their supporters sitting outside.

Lukewarm response to online voting

The district administration’s initiative of conducting online voting didn’t get a good response.  As a pilot project, the administration had allowed only 100 voters to vote online but of them, only 62 cast their vote. Even in the conventional voting, only 1,853 votes were cast against a total of 2,800 votes.

Boozing, smoking in pubic

Many people, who claimed themselves to be members and supporters of the candidates, were seen smoking and consuming liquor in public. Even one of the candidates was seen puffing a cigarette while he was coming out of the club to celebrate victory.