Jammu: Senior journalist Sanjeev Pargal was elected as the new president of Press Club of Jammu while ten other members of his team were also elected in the results declared late Friday night.
Pargal polled 405 votes out of total 505 votes to defeat another senior journalist Surinder Sharma while Zorawar Singh, Dinesh Manhotra and Channi Anand, all members of Pargal’s panel emerged victorious with 404, 396 and 392 votes respectively as vice president, secretary general and treasurer respectively.
Their opponents Ravinder Singh, Sumit Sharma and Sudhir Kumar, who contested for the posts of vice president, secretary general and treasurer bagged 87, 94 and 96 votes respectively.
Similarly, seven executive members of their panel were also declared elected. They included Nishikant Khajuria, Dinesh Mahajan, Ajay Meenia, Govind Chauhan, Deepak Khajuria, Vishal Bharati and Kunal Shrivatsa who polled 393, 386, 355, 333, 332, 323 and 309 votes respectively.
Their rival contestants Rajinder Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Mir Imran, Sham Sunder, Vishal Sharma,Varun Magotra, Rohit Gupta and Rajiv Mahajan secured 148, 141, 130, 128, 119, 110, 84 and 80 respectively.
Bar Association Jammu president M K Bhardwaj acted as Returning officer while Pawan Maini, Ravinder Sharma, C M Sharma and Sanjeet Khajuria acted as Assistant Returning officers.
Pargal’s panel enjoyed the support of the outgoing panel headed by senior journalist Ashwani Kumar. Their panel was also supported by another former president Manu Shrivatsa.
Elections were conducted after a long gap of seven years.
Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, who is among the founder members of the Club, had specially arrived from the union capital to cast his vote.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (NC) deputy chief spokesperson Dr Gagan Bhagat on Saturday felicitated a new team of Press Club Jammu.