The shareholders of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd have blocked the reappointment of Punit Goenka as a director on its board.

Goenka will continue as the company’s CEO, a position he will hold till 2029.

It was the retail shareholders of Zee who tipped the scale against Goenka, with more than 88 per cent voting against the proposal.

While the appointment of a director is cleared by the shareholders, a CEO is appointed by the board and it is not necessary that only a director can hold this post.

On November 18, Goenka had quit as the MD of Zee to focus on operational responsibilities. After his resignation, Zee had withdrawn a proposal for his re-appointment as the managing director. It proposed an ordinary resolution to appoint ``a director in place of Goenka who retires by rotation and being eligible, offers himself for re-appointment’’.

The proposal was defeated on Thursday at Zee’s 42nd annual general meeting. Goenka lost by a very small margin: the proposal for his reappointment could get the approval of only 49.54 per cent of the total number of votes cast while 50.45 per cent voted against the resolution. Earlier, proxy advisory firms that included InGovern and IiAS had advised the shareholders to vote against Goenka’s re-appointment.

“As expected shareholders have voted against his reappointment. By voting against the reappointment of Punit Goenka, shareholders would be signalling that they are seeking a leadership change,” Shriram Subramanian, founder of InGovern, told The Telegraph.

“While Punit Goenka may be showing skin in the game by giving up the MD position and continuing to be CEO, this is not a desirable outcome for shareholders. The board of directors, as trustees of shareholders, need to change the leadership of the company,’’ Subramanian said.