The election to the 19-member Board of Directors of India’s largest urban cooperative bank, Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd., has gone unopposed, with the final list showing exactly 19 candidates for 19 seats across all four constituencies.
According to the final list issued by the Returning Officer on Tuesday, 14 candidates remain for the 14 General Constituency seats within Maharashtra. Similarly, two candidates remain for the two General Constituency seats outside Maharashtra, meaning both seats have also been filled without contest.
The bank’s SC/ST reserved seat has one candidate for one seat, while the Women’s Constituency has two candidates for two seats. Thus, all four constituencies have been filled unopposed.
It is learnt that 25 nominations were initially filed for the 19 board seats, 19 from the Maharashtra constituency, two from outside Maharashtra, one from the SC/ST category and three from the Women’s Constituency.
Following scrutiny on Monday, 23 nominations remained valid, 18 from Maharashtra, two outside Maharashtra, one SC/ST and two women candidates. Two nominations were rejected.
Yogita Satyendra Deshmukh’s nomination was rejected for not maintaining the required Rs 50,000 savings/current/term deposit account with the bank for a minimum period of 12 months, as required under Bye-law 55A. Aakash Ajay Baraskar’s nomination was rejected after the Returning Officer noted that he was indebted to the bank as a borrower with outstanding vehicle and personal loans.
After the withdrawal stage, 19 candidates remained for the 19 available board seats, with each constituency having candidates equal to the number of seats on offer. Consequently, no polling will be required, with the formal declaration of the elected board expected from the Cooperative Election Authority.
Saraswat Bank is India’s largest urban cooperative bank, with a business mix of more than Rs 1 lakh crore.
The new board will see a significant change in its composition, with around nine members of the outgoing board not returning this time, including outgoing Chairman Gautam Thakur. The exits are understood to be due to various reasons, including the impact of the RBI’s 10-year tenure restriction for directors.
The returning directors include Samir Kumar Banerji, Arun Rajaram Bapat, Anand Arun Desai, Geeta Sanjeev Kulkarni, Kishore Gurudas Masurkar, Arvind Sadashiv Mokashi, Laxman Ramkrishna Samant, Mandar Bhimrao Kadam and Dr. Sandhya Anil Kamath.
The new faces on the board are Dr. Ajit Gunjikar, Bhaskar Laxman Khose, Anand Madhusudan Khot, Mangesh Sharad Parulkar, Padmakar Mohan Parulekar, Nagar Devraya Shenoy, Renuka Sudhakar Wachasunder, Gopalkrishna Umesh Rao, Virendra Sitaram Upadhye and Rashmi Pradeep Prabhu.
