Chawla group sweeps UCPMA poll

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 5

DS Chawla is the new president while Manjinder Singh Sachdeva, from the same group, has been elected general secretary of the United Cycle and Parts Manufacturing Association (UCPMA), Asia’s largest organisation in bicycle trade. The elections to the UCPMA were held here today while results were declared in the evening. Out of total eight seats, seven were grabbed by the Chawla group. In all, 1,045 votes were polled during the elections.

The winners include, DS Chawla - president, Vilaiti Ram - joint secretary, Manjinder Singh Sachdeva - general secretary, Satnam Singh Makkar - vice president, Achru Ram finance secretary, Rajinder Singh Sarhali - propaganda secretary and Harsimrat Singh - secretary.

The lone winner from the Rajiv Jain group (the rival candidate for post of president) was Gurcharan Singh, who won from the post of senior vice president.

Like any elections, the UCPMA poll was also tough as the fight among the contestants for all the posts was tight. But this time, more and more members came to cast their votes to decide the fate of candidates in fray. The Chawla group was elated as soon as results were announced. Sweets were distributed among winners, supporters and all present on the occasion.

ID cards made on the spot

On request of the contestants in the fray, many ID cards were made on the spot and members were allowed to cast their vote. Members not having I-Cards were asked to show their GST number or the proof of their firm. At the same time when more and more members were brought for making I Cards, members of the Rajiv Jain group approached the presiding officer and gave in writing not to allow this practice further.

One of the members, who raised objection, said, “Till today, were they sleeping? If there were five to seven such members we would not have raised any objection. But after 3: 30 pm, groups started coming in for getting the I-Cards made. On raising doubt, we objected to it and no such cases were further entertained.”

Polling stopped for about 20 minutes

During this controversy, the polling was, however, stopped for about 20 minutes at around 4 pm. When things were streamlined, polling started again. During the whole election process huge police personnel were deployed at the polling station.