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.
In the first hearing held in the case related to the elections of AP Mahesh Urban Cooperative Bank, the Telangana High Court has directed the Returning Officer to resume the counting of votes but barred him from announcing the results.
The RO, who faces disciplinary action for abruptly stopping the counting, has to submit the results after counting is over, in a sealed envelope to the court on Monday.
The case came up for hearing on Thursday. While hearing the petition of the Returning officer and the outgoing senior Vice-Chairman Ramesh Kumar Bung, the court ordered counting of votes of the last four booths and submitting the result in a seal packed envelope.
The murky politics at the AP Mahesh Bank witnessed during the elections and subsequent counting of votes, have finally landed the UCB in the court. In a writ filed by the opposition parties, a demand to appoint an Administrator has been made. Sadly, the ego-clashes of co-operators have brought a successful UCB to a halt.
The whole issue started with Bhagwati Baldawa, the Chairman candidate from the Founder’s Panel complaining that her voters were not allowed to cast their votes due to the shortage of EVMs. Out of 34 k members of the bank only around 13.5k members could cast their votes, claimed Baldawa.
The counting of votes for the election of AP Mahesh Urban Cooperative Bank, which was supposed to be concluded on Monday has been stopped due to the ruckus created by the opposition panel.
The voting was held on 20th December through EVM machines but due to deployment of less number of voting machines, members could not cast their votes. And out of 34 k members of the bank only around 13.5k members could cast their votes, said Bhagwati Baldawa, the Chairman Candidate from the Founder’s Panel.
The counting of votes was done till 6th round but in the last round the counting was not done. It started at 10:30 A.M. on Monday morning. Over 70 EVMs were set up in different polling booths but the counting of votes of 10 EVMs has been stopped.
The leading UCB from Andhra Pradesh AP Mahesh Urban Cooperative Bank is going to elect a new Board this Sunday. The heat of elections has picked up with the two Panels led by Ramesh Bung and Bhagwati Baldewa trading unsavoury charges against each other.
These panels namely Sansthapak Panel and Founder Panel headed by Ramesh Bung, and Bhagwati Baldewa respectively have fielded 15-15 candidates each. For the 15 posts of board members, 35 candidates are contesting the election in total. The election is scheduled for 20th December 2020.
With the announcement of the final list, Bhagwati Baldewa is accusing Ramesh Bung and his associates of indulging into various wrong doings. One of her charges is that Bung made money in the construction of the bank’s headquarters at Banjara Hills.