Ekanath K. Thakur has once again been elected Chairman of Saraswat Bank unopposed for another five years. The Charismatic leader has  also got his panel of Directors elected unopposed. Both Mr Thakur and his panel have romped home very easily. Mr Sushil Sanzgiri  has been elected as the vice chairman.

Responding to Indiancooperative.com’s mail, Mr Thakur sent a  brief massage “Elected unopposed along with sixteen directors of my panel”.

Indiancooperative.com knew about the result but waited for the formal announcement to be made. Talking to Indiancooperative.com soon after the result, Mr Thakur said he would concentrate his efforts on further growth and expansion of the Bank.

As reported earlier, Sarawat Bank has got the Reserve Bank of India’s “go  ahead” to begin all India operation. Mr Thakur and his team had been busy opening new branches and recruiting staff when the election fever overtook them. The election result is bound to accelerate the process.

Election preparation was a mammoth job with 1,68,000 members of Saraswat Bank slated to vote for the 16 new Board members at 200 polling stations across the country and  monitored by an independent Returning Officer Mr H P Gemini. Out of these 16 members, 10 are from Mumbai, 4 from the rest of the Maharashtra state and 2 from the rest of the country.

The chances of the incumbent Chairman Mr Eknath Thakur’s  reelection had been bright from the very beginning as it was during his tenure the bank had beaten the all powerful Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) to the  number one position in terms of business turnover.

The bank’s bottomline has increased nearly six times netting a total busines of over Rs 28,000 crore in the  past 10 years and thus becoming India’s  largest Urban Co-operative Bank.

Indiancooperative.com wishes Ekanath K. Thakur and his panel  all the best and hopes Saraswat bank would  continue to inspire the Indian cooperative movement .