ONLY ONE Full fledged PANEL IN PCI ELECTIONS TILL NOW. LAST DATE OF WITHDRAWAL ON 18 SEPTEMBER
The elections of the prestigious Press Club of India have been fixed for 23 rd September as the term of the outgoing president Umakant Lakhera, secretary general Vinay Kumar and their entire panel has already come to an end.
This time the elections were held bit later due to various unavoidable reasons. The date of filing of nominations was till 15 th September and the final date of withdrawal is on 18 th September.
Till now, after the Election Commission of the Press Club of India has executed scrutiny there are four candidates for the post of president viz Gautam Lahiri, Habib Akhtar, Pradeep Srivastav and Prashant Tandon. For Vice president’s post too the names of four aspirants have appeared viz Manoranjan Bharti, Meghna Dhulia, Pramod Sharma and Vineeta Thakur. For the post of Secretary General three names have been shortlisted after scrutiny viz. Neeraj Thakur Pradeep Srivastava and Vineeta Thakur. For the post of joint secretary there are four names KVNNS Prasad, Md. Mehtab Alam, and two others. For Treasurer’s post three aspirants have filed their nomination papers viz Atul Mishra, Mohit Dubey and Rahil Chopra.
However for 16 posts of Managing Committee there were 26 aspirants. Though the exact picture would appear on 18 th September evening which is the last date of withdrawals as several candidates have filed nominations for more than one post and would be withdrawing by 18 th evening, positively.
This time there does not seem to be much competition between the panels or candidates as till now only one cohesive well equipped panel has appeared on the election scene even before final withdrawal.
This panel known as Lahiri, Bharti , Thakur panel has veteran independent journalist Gautam Lahiri as President, Manoranjan Bharti from NDTV as Vice Presidential candidate, Neeraj Thakur from The Probe as Secretary General candidate , Mohammed Mehtabh Alam from The Wire for Joint secretary’s post and Mohit Dubey from News Nation for Treasurer’s post. Its 16 candidates have also been finalised for the posts of Managing Committee.
The tag line of the panel is : A team by the journalists, for Journalists and of journalists which will DEFEND MEDIA FREEDOM, PRESERVE INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY AND PROTECT WORKERS RIGHTS!
The group or team supporting the current panel have been winning the PCI elections for the last several years hands down commanding confidence and trust of majority of voters of PCI on the basis of its dedicated services, development works of the club, giving it a new shape providing all facilities, coping with the hard times during Covid and there after as well and constantly ensuring best food and services to the valued members including holding seminars, various media workshops, classes on film making and digital journalism, protest demonstrations and meetings to safeguard press freedom and relentlessly fighting for the journalists’ rights, their safety and protection in and outside the Press Club of India.
