Chandigarh Golf Club elections likely in March

Deepankar Sharda

Chandigarh, January 29

Chandigarh Golf Club (CGS) is planning to hold its annual general elections in the second or third week of March. Earlier, the elections were scheduled to be held on January 30. However, the elections were postponed due to a spike in Covid-19 cases and restrictions imposed by the UT Administration.

Now, it has been decided to hold the elections either on March 13 or March 20 and the final decision is likely to be taken in the next executive meeting of the club scheduled on February 2.

A meeting of three presidential candidates – SPS Ghai (Nippy), Lt Col HS Chahal (Bobby) and Maj Rajinder Singh Virk (Lally) – was held with the present president Ravibir Singh and it has been decided to pursue the election process as soon as possible.

“The three presidential candidates, who filed nominations for the post during the previous notification, held a meeting with the present president, Ravibir Singh, and it has broadly been decided to plan the elections. The final decision will be taken in the executive meeting to be held on February 2. If approved, the elections are likely to be held on March 13 or March 20,” said Dr GS Kochhar, vice-president and chairman, Media and Publicity, CGC. After the election notification, code of conduct will be imposed under Rule 51 (D) of the club.

“Before announcing the final schedule of the elections, the executive committee will also assess the Covid situation and get approval of the UT Administration. Both things are important before making any announcement,” said Kochhar.

The elections will be conducted to choose one president and 11 executive members. The rest of the office-bearers are nominated by the chosen president later.

The club had last witnessed voting in the 2018 elections. Thereafter, the presidents were chosen unanimously. As many as 1,800 members have the voting right to choose new office-bearers of the club. As per the previous trends, 900 to 1,000 members turn up to cast their vote.

The club had held elections in April 2018. At that time, a total of 918 votes were cast. The following year, Sandeep Singh Sandhu was unanimously elected for the next term. Due to the Covid pandemic, he continued on the same post for 2020. Thereafter, Ravibir Singh Grewal was unanimously chosen to run the show in January 2021. He had also won the president’s election in 2017-18 by 94 votes. He had also served as the acting president in 2016-17 after the demise of the then sitting president IPS Mann.

This year, it is believed to be a triangular contest, a first in the history of the club.

Entire process to start again

Sources confirmed that the entire process – notification for elections and filing of nominations – will be held again. “The previous notification stands null and void, so are the candidatures. The process will start again as per the club’s rules and regulations,” said a source.