In the biennial election of the Uttarakhand Secretariat Association held on Saturday, section officer Deepak Joshi was elected the president. He defeated the incumbent president of the association Narendra Prasad Raturi by a margin of 437 votes. The total votes cast were 900 while the number of voters was 1087. Joshi is the president of Reviewing Officers’ Association and is known as a vocal leader, adept in tough bargaining vis-à-vis the State Government.
Observers say that Joshi’s election has buttressed the point that the Secretariat employees are intent on electing leaders who have the spunk to fight the State government over their issues. “This is because of the fact that the State government turns vulnerable vis-à-vis the government employees who constitute a good chunk of the State’s electorate around the time when the elections draw near,” said one of the observers.
Interestingly, the section officers bagged all the six posts- president, vice- president, general secretary, two joint secretaries, treasurer and auditor-up for grabs in the election. Notably, reviewing officers (RO) and assistant reviewing officers (ARO) dominated the voters’ list and Joshi being the president of Reviewing Officers’ Association had an edge over his rival. JP Maikhuri was elected as the vice-president while Pushkar Singh Negi and Sadeep Kumar were elected as joint secretaries. Ajay Kumar was elected as the treasurer while Anil Prakash Uniyal got elected as auditor.
Sources say that the crucial Assembly election 2017 approaching near, the association is likely to turn aggressive and bargain hard regarding their demands with the power that be.
Aside from the outgoing association president Narendra Prasad Raturi, the general secretary Pradeep Papnai had tested their luck in the electoral battle again. While the former lost the latter won while defeating Rakesh Joshi, deemed a tough contender.
Those who participated in the election said the defeat of soft-spoken Raturi who is inclined to soft-pedal their issues with the State government to the vociferous and dynamic Joshi was a foregone conclusion with the 2017 Assembly election coming nearer.