NCUI’s Governing Council meeting, perhaps the last one before the elections, was held last week and it decided to hold elections on 23rd November. The GC met in the backdrop of an important meeting two senior leaders-Dr Chandra Pal Singh Yadav and Dileep Sanghani had with Union State Minister Parshottam Rupala, sources reveal.
Since the AGM date was extended till December 31st by the Central Registrar, there was a section of the NCUI leadership that wanted to hold elections and AGM on 27-28 December. But Rupala is believed to have prevailed on the duo to hold the elections as soon as possible. Accordingly, incumbent President Chandra Pal mooted the idea of holding elections on 23rd November, to which all GC members agreed.
This resolution means NCUI has to work on many fronts at speed to achieve its target of holding elections on the scheduled date. It has to notify election 60 days in advance and has to work hard to appoint a Returning officer sooner than later-a process which has long been vexing for the apex body.
“We plan to write a fresh letter to the Delhi state RoC and District Administration for securing the services of a Returning Officer. While the former had expressed their reluctance for the job due to Covid earlier, the latter did not even bother to respond”, said Chief Executive N Satayanarayan.
“If we fail, we would again request the Central Registrar either to appoint an officer of his choice or allow the NCUI Board to appoint a RO”, added Satyanarayan confident of the fact that the Rupala’s intervention this time may make a difference.
Though the voter list would be prepared by the NCUI officials, the RO would vet the list and would invite members for nominations. Scrutiny and final list of eligible candidates would be published thereafter.
It bears recall that NCUI has about 16 Board seats on which elections are supposed to take place. But in actuality the main contest revolves around four seats where there are too many voters as well as too many contestants. Usually, there are around 200 eligible voters cutting across states.
The Multi state co-op societies are one such constituency with a huge number of voters. Pramod Kumar Singh of Uttarakhand was the winner in the last election but would he be lucky this time as well, nobody knows.
The clubbing together of Sugar co-ops, Labour co-ops, fisheries co-ops and several others into two constituencies is also something that makes canvassing difficult for candidates. Labour co-operators or sugar co-ops don’t know each other and find it tough to do meaningful campaigning, said an insider.
While the old guards may find it easy to romp home, there would be quite a few who may find this election tough. Insiders say while there should not be any issues with the elections/nominations of Dr Chandra Pal, Bijender Singh, GH Amin, it may not be equally easy for V P Singh, especially if G H Amin decides to contest from Union Territory as well.
There is also the case of Ashok Dabas who would certainly demand his pound of flesh for withdrawing election petitions on the issue of reorganization of constituencies. Dabas success from the labour constituency looks remote and he would certainly look up to the govt to find a berth in the NCUI’s decision making body by hook or crook.
