1400 scribes vote in Press Club of India election on 10 th April following Covid 19 protocols
The voting at Press Club of India was hectic despite spike in Covid 19 cases in Delhi and protocols set by the government. Good number of journalists arrived at the Press Club of India venue wearing masks n following necessary Covid 19 regulations. On 10 th April, Saturday, the annual election of Press Club of India was held at the PCI premises.
The enthusiasm amongst the voters was worth laudable as most of the veteran n senior journalists turned up for voting, some even in their wheel chairs like the veteran journalist and former Metro Editor of The Hindustan Times A.R. Wig n others. There are more than five thousand members of Press Club of India and about 1400 PCI members had turned up to vote despite hot summer and Covid 19 situation. The environment was quite harmonious and friendly and the elections were conducted peacefully as usual.
There were two panels in the fray, one president Umakant Lakhera – general secretary Vinay Kumar panel and another president Basak – vice president Gosh Panel with total 21 candidates for various posts including 16 management committee members. While Umakant ‘s panel is emphasising on development, credibility and experienced leadership while asking for votes, the Basak – Ghosh panel is seeking votes on change to bring a transparent and accountability oriented new team.
Kindly recall that in the past years veteran journalists Gautam Lahiri, Anand Sahay, Anant Bagaitkar etc have been the presidents with heir panel swooping the PCI elections. The present panel of Umakant Lakhera – Vinay Kumar belongs to the same group who’d been coming victorious for the last several terms. The rival panel of Basak – Ghosh is banking on their slogan of change while the Lakhera panel highlights its achievements of modernising the club including its kitchen with introduction of delicious dishes and supplying 1000 food packetd daily during Covid 19 pandemic lockdown to the poorest of the poker sections of the society, including not retrenching a single employee and paying their salaries in time despite odd n highly challenging situation.
