The lead up to the election of Delhi based Vaish Cooperative Adarsh Bank scheduled for 5th September 2021 reeks with allegations and counter-allegations. The main fight is between Mrs Shikha Garg and the outgoing Chairman Arun Kumar Jain for the post of Chairmanship.
There are allegations of all kinds in the air such as making members illegally, giving bribes to the Returning officer, running the bank as personal fiefdom by the outgoing Chairman and his coterie.
Interestingly, the bank’s board consists of 12 elected directors out of which 11 have been elected unopposed. The intense fight is only for one seat i.e. for the Chairman post, where the two are fighting.
Mrs Shikha Garg, who fought an electoral battle earlier with then Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit from New Delhi constituency, has accused the outgoing Chairman Jain of making over 2k new members in an illegal manner.
Rebutting the charges, Jain asked, “Has she got any proof? We have not made anyone a member illegally as the rules and regulations were duly followed. She is only trying to tarnish my image by making false allegations with an aim to win the election. I am sure that she will not succeed”.
On her part, Mrs Garg says “The outgoing President has not done anything to improve the conditions of the bank during his tenure and has not worked with dedication and commitment”, she said.
Arun Jain said ”When I left as Chairman in 2015 the profit of the bank was about Rs 1.5 crore. Mukesh Jain took over from me and it got reduced to Rs 6 lac when I took over again in 2018. With great efforts, we have again taken the profit to the level of 38 lakh and I am sure by the end of this fiscal the figure would be no less than a crore.”
But Mrs Garg is not impressed and accuses Jain and others of bribing the RO. “Being a candidate for the chairman, the Returning officer and others have also not provided me with a hard copy of the voters list as well as other related material of the election”, she said.
Defending the RO, Jain says “G S Chaturvedi, Returning Officer, a retired I.A.S officer. He is a respected person and making false allegations against us of bribing him is lamentable”, Jain added.
Meanwhile, the supporters of Jain in the bank said, “We are sure that the outgoing Chairman will win the election with huge margins. And Garg will get less than 200 votes. But the things would be clear on 5th September.
There are over 22k eligible voters but only 18k are eligible to cast the vote in the election. The voting will be held at Nutan Marathi Sr. Sec. School, Paharganj, Delhi.
Readers would recall that 35 candidates had filed the nomination papers out of which only one paper was found invalid. But on the day of withdrawal, 21 candidates withdrew their names and 13 were left in the fray. Out of this 11 have been elected unopposed and the election will be held for one seat that is for the post of Chairman.