Photo-finish win for Vivek Jain's panel

The verdict, figuratively, resulted in a photo finish in which former chairman Vivek Jain's panel scraped through to assume power by a margin of mere 4 votes.

In the first meeting of the newly-elected committee soon after the results were announced, Jain was elected as chairman of the club, while Champaklal Zaveri was elected as chairman of the stewards' body.

"The propaganda for this election had touched a new low," a jubilant and visibly relieved Jain told MiD DAY after the win, referring to the personal attacks made by a couple of club members against him and his father, "But I am happy to note our members sensed on whose side the truth lay, and voted accordingly."

Jain, who was ousted by Khushroo N Dhunjibhoy as chairman last year, topped the voting charts for the seventh straight year. He bagged 897 of the 1,256 valid votes that were polled yesterday at the 98th AGM of the race club. Jain's panel of five was voted back to power thanks to a four-vote margin that Jain's father Dr Shashi Chand Jain (637) managed over Shivlal Daga (633).

Surprisingly, Dr Jain who himself holds the record for the highest number of terms (13) as chairman of the institution, was pushed closer to the bottom of the vote ladder, but still managed to collect 637 votes, only four more than veteran Daga, another stalwart from the Dhunjibhoy panel, who found himself out in the wilderness after gracing the committee room for nearly three decades.