Gautam Lahiri Panel Rides Media Freedom Plank to Win Press Club Polls

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Lahiri Panel Wins One-Sided Press Club Elections

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, November 11: The Gautam Lahiri panel swept the Press Club Elections. The panel members won the elections by wide margins. The voting of the elections took place on Saturday.

“The result of the Press Club of India election 2024 was declared on Sunday, with the existing panel of senior journalist Gautam Lahiri making a clean sweep,’ the Press Club of India said in a media statement.

The Lahiri panel came for criticism from a section of media persons for negative campaigning. The panel had put out a campaign leaflet with slogans – “Beware of non-serious and opportunist candidates; Can’t put together a full panel to contest, cannot run the affairs of PCI; and they will blow a lot of smoke, talk about lot of things except media freedom.”

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Vinayak Padmadeo, working for The Tribune, commented on the Lahiri panel campaign, saying: “This Caricature is in bad taste. And everyone has the right to contest. Calling someone a non-serious and opportunist journalist is wrong.”

The Lahiri panel bagged all the five Office Bearers and 16-member of managing committee posts. Lahiri, who was the presidential candidate, secured 1045 votes. His challengers Atul Mishra and Arun Sharma managed to poll 133 and 116 vote, respectively.

For the post of vice president, Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty, who works for The Wire, got 930 votes whereas Rahil Chopra and Prahlad Singh Rajput received 230 and 100 votes, respectively.

For Secretary General post, Neeraj Thakur defeated Laxmi Devi Aree of PTI and secured 913 votes. Afzal Imam, working for Nav Bharat, was elected as the joint secretary while Mohit Dubey bagged the post of treasurer. There were 28 candidates in the fray.

The Lahiri panel victory was a foregone conclusion after the rivals failed to build a team to challenge the incumbent. Lahiri has been elected president of the PCI for second term in a row.

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The Lahiri team claims to have raised the voice of media freedom while also holding a survey for the Press Council of India on the layoff of the media persons in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Its findings revealed that the major media houses in the country had used the alibi of the pandemic to layoff a large number of media persons.

Barun Jha of PTI who led an online campaign for rivals of the Lahiri panel members extended his cooperation to the winners in the elections. “We fought and we lost. Elections are over and we request the winning team to work for betterment of our beloved club and if you need any help from us, please let us know,” said Jha in a post on X.

Press Club of India had recently been in sensation for a photograph of a group of scribes sobering with liquor in the flooded bar. The PCI has also been holding a discussion programme in an association with the Indian International Centre where people of eminence are invited for a dialogue with media persons.

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