With Wednesday's victory, Udani will be serving his second term as president of the prestigious cricket club in South Mumbai
The Cricket Club of India. Pic/thecricketclubofindia.com
Premal Udani on Wednesday retained the presidency of the Cricket Club of India (CCI), with 1,746 votes, while his opponent Satyapal Jain managed to get 755 votes. The results of the election to the top post was announced late evening.
ADVERTISEMENT
Udani took over the reins of the CCI in 2018. The term of the CCI president expires in two years, but s/he can contest for another term. With Wednesday's victory, Udani will now be serving his second term as president of the prestigious SoBo club. "This has shown that members have reposed their faith in me and appreciated the good work in what has been a very tough year for the club, like it has been for everyone. Some of our facilities have reopened according to the guidelines. Priority will be given towards unlocking more facilities as we try to get back to normal, adhering to protocol. Then, we will look ahead," Udani said.
Premal Udani, president, CCI
Jain said that "starting my campaign for the [election to the] top post very late" was one of the reasons for his loss. "There was a lot of confusion in the run up to the polls. The e-voting was announced late. When we learnt that the club was going in for e-voting, that is when I decided to send in my papers to contest. I knew that with e-voting, people will vote for the right person, as physically there is a lot of groupism and alignment with certain persons in the club."
Jain, in his manifesto, had stated that he would work for additional car parking, which is a hot button issue for the club. When asked about the claim, Jain, sportingly said, that "if a majority of members want additional car parking, like I think they do, we can certainly work towards that, in our capacity as club members, even not holding any post."
The election, including e-voting and physical ballot, began on December 31 and went on till the evening of January 6. A total of 2,599 votes — 1,323 electronic and 1,276 ballots — were polled for the posts of the president and members of the executive committee. The votes were counted immediately after the voting ended, and the results were announced.