Passing through a longish wait, the election results of AP Mahesh Cooperative Urban Bank were finally given the green signal by the court to be announced on Friday. Ramesh Kumar Bung, a well-known face in the cooperative circles was declared elected unopposed as the Chairman of the UCB on Sunday.
Talking to Indian Cooperative soon after the results Bung said, “Last Friday court has asked RO to announce the result. After the announcement we won the 10 seats out of 15 seats and the other five seats were won by our rival’s panel.”
“For the third term I am elected as the Chairman of the Bank. Earlier I was the Chairman for two terms i.e. 2005-2010 and 2010-2015″, Bung added proudly.
Bung has replaced Purshotamdas Mandhana who now has been made as the senior vice-chairman of the bank. Besides, one of the outgoing directors Laxminarayan Rathi has been elected unopposed as the Vice-Chairman. Rathi has replaced Attal who did not contest the election of the bank.
The matter of elections was going in Telangana High Court and several hearings were held on the matter. But on Friday the court allowed the Returning Officer Esther Rani John to announce the verdict. Earlier, the court ordered RO to submit the result in a seal packed envelope.
It bears recall that the election of the Mahesh Bank was marred by controversy with allegations and counter-allegations flying thick. The two panels–Sansthapak Panel and the Founder Panel headed by Ramesh Bung and Bhagwati Baldewa respectively, had fielded 15-15 candidates each.
While Bung’s panel won 10 seats Baldewa’s panel bagged 5. Thanking his supporters after his name was announced Bung said “I am thankful to the members, well-wishers and others who reposed faith in me and once again after a gap of five years, they have given me the responsibility of Chairman.”
“My first priority will be technology adoption by the bank and our team would also try to realign the increased pace of digitalization of the transaction process in a more customer friendly environment”, Bung who is held as the uncrowned king of the Mahesh Bank, underlined.
It bears recall that on the day of counting of votes, Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission ordered a stoppage of the counting of votes for the last four booths and the matter went to the court. It was the first time the election was held employing EVMs in place of ballot papers.
The opposition panel had accused Ramesh Bung team for making 800 gold loan members in a single day so as to increase the number of voters supporting his panel. None of these allegations were bought by the members who once again reposed faith in Bung and his team.
A P Mahesh Bank has a branch network of 45 covering four states. It is a Multi-State Scheduled Bank and its Head Office is located in Hyderabad.
