PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Aug 7: The biennial polls for the president’s post of Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA), the state’s largest and oldest industrial body, concluded on a peaceful note here on Saturday.
The election through the secret ballot was conducted between 12.30 pm and 4 pm at the auditorium of Adityapur Auto Cluster ( AAC), under the supervision of SN Khandelwal, the election observer.
In all 549 ASIA members, who are industrialists and entrepreneurs participated in the polls for electing the new president.
This was for the first time it so happened that the polls took place only for the post of president.
All the candidates for the other 10 posts of office bearers were earlier elected unopposed.
Counting will continue till late in the evening before the result is declared.
Sources said there was a tough fight between the two nominees for the president’s post – Santosh Khaitan and Rajiv Ranjan.
Both of them were vice-presidents of the old committee.
In all, there are eleven posts of office-bearers – four secretaries, four vice-presidents, a general secretary, a treasurer, and the president.
“ We had plugged all gaps to ensure transparency and to ensure that the polling process is smooth and fair,” said the outgoing president, Inder Agarwal.
According to Agarwal, all the necessary guidelines were followed in view of the Covid-19 induced pandemic.
All the members were asked to produce their photo ID card before entering the auditorium for participating in the polls.
Mask and social distancing were mandatory. Members were asked not to crowd at the campus of the Adityapur Auto Cluster, the venue of the biennial polls.
The two-year term of the present committee led by Agarwal ended in July.
The annual general body meeting of the industry outfits took place last month which had notified the date of the biennial polls on August 7.
Sources in ASIA said in the keenly contested polls Santosh Khaitan, a veteran industrialist is likely to get an edge over his rival Rajeev Ranjan.
