Nagpur: The voting for High Court Bar Association (HCBA) polls, being held on Saturday, December 18, commenced at 9.30 am. The voting will end at 5 pm. The counting of votes will begin at 5.30 pm the same day.
After being postponed six times due to Covid-19 pandemic, the elections to the HCBA are being held on December 18.
Some 37 candidates are in the fray for 16 posts on the Association’s Executive Committee, which comprises a President, Secretary, two Vice Presidents, Joint Secretary, Library In-charge and nine members. The polls were first scheduled in March-April 2020, but deferred till now due to lockdowns. Despite the absence of big names, unlike the 2017 polls, an interesting battle is on the cards for all 16 posts. Except the Treasurer, there is a multi-pronged fight for all posts. Most of the candidates had filed their nominations when the elections were first announced in February 2020.
There is a four-pronged fight for the top post with candidates like VG Bhamburkar, Atul Pande, Shridhar Purohit, and Sameer Sohoni, in the fray. While Bhamburkar is a veteran, who unsuccessfully contested many elections, others are first timers.
Sohoni is backed by a powerful group led by Shreerang Bhandarkar, which claims to have support of young lawyers from the fraternity. They are promising a slew of benefits for young voters, like a seat in the High Court chambers for just Rs 5,000, continuous grooming and guidance from senior lawyers, and parking for all, among others.
Shreeganesh Abhyankar, Sharad Bhattad, Rajesh Nayak, and Pankaj Tidke would fight it out for the two posts of Vice Presidents. There is a straight contest between Amol Jaltare and Rugved Dhore for the Secretary’s post while Mangesh Bute, Shriram Deoras and Madhav Lakhe will battle it out for the Treasurer’s post.
The contenders for the post of Library In-charge are H M Bobde, Kaustubh Deogade, and VS Oberoi. The fight for Executive Members is among Anirudh Anathakrishnan, Bosco Anthony, PM Awathale, BA Bhendarkar, Aquib Haque, Amol Hinge, Sagar Katkar, Gaurav Khond, Apurva Kolhe, Akshaya Kshirsagar, Sagar Mhaiske, D Padmagiriwar, Ananta Ramteke, Vishal Shende, Sharang Sonak, Sandeep Tatke, and Rajeshri Tayde.
