Dhunjibhoy now holds RWITC reins

MUMBAI: The members of the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) voted for change at this year's elections for the nine-member managing committee for 2014-15. Former chairman Khushroo Dhunjibhoy's panel got the mandate with five candidates from the six in fray winning. The panel headed by Vivek Jain though suffered a reversal with only four of the five members getting through.
Dhunjibhoy got 811 votes while Jaydev Mody (831), Shyam Ruia (825), Vijay Shirke (815) and Ram Shroff (722) were elected from his panel.Like previous years, Jain again topped the vote share polling 916 votes. Zavaray Poonawalla (808), Champaklal Zaveri (780) and Geoffrey Nagpal (719) were the other three to get through.
Noted Rotarian Gulamhusein Vahanvaty from the Jain panel lost with 710 votes while new comer Adil Gandhy, contesting from Dhunjibhoy panel, lost as he could get just 571 votes.
The two seats of the Board Of Appeal (BOA) went to veteran administrator Shivlal Daga (809) and Ashwin Mehta (696) while Shiven Surendranath lost with 666 votes. This is the first time Daga has been elected for the BOA and his presence will certainly add more credibility to the decisions taken by the board.
"We will try to fulfill our promises to our members and we hope that we will get good support to carry out our task," an elated Dhunjibhoy told TOI.
Jain on the other hand felt it was a moral defeat and said he and his team may not continue in the committee. "Topping the election was a personal triumph, but my team lost.Naturally we are disappointed at the result, even though it was narrow. I'm surprised the members believed in a manifesto that was tall on promises.None of us opted to be stewards and will weigh our options in the next few days," Jain told TOI.
The pre-election bitterness continued during the formation of the stewards' body with all the four winning members of the Jain panel refusing to be part of it. To tackle this, the new rulers decided to propose seven club members as co-opted stewards under the leadership of Shyam Ruia as chairman. Vispy Patel, Jiyaji Bhosale, Adil Gandhy, Sunil Jhangiani, Berjis Desai and Shiven Surendranath could be nominated but according to sources both Gandhy and Surendranath are not willing to be part of the stewards' body.
Managing committee: Vivek Jain (916 votes); Jaydev M Mody (831); Shyam M Ruia (825); Vijay Shirke (815); Khushroo Dhunjibhoy (811); Zavaray Poonawalla (808); Champaklal Zaveri (780); Ram Shroff (722); Geoffrey Nagpal (719).Lost: Gulamhusein Vahanvaty (710) and Adil Gandhy (571).Board Of Appeal (two seats): Shivlal Daga (809) and Ashwin Mehta (696). Lost: Shiven Surendranath (666).
Total votes: 1390. Invalid: 84.
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