The annual election of the Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI), the apex trade body of the state, will not be held on December 20 as scheduled earlier due to the Covid situation.

Responding to an appeal from the past presidents of the trade body, the contesting candidates agreed at a meeting held at Chamber Bhawan in Ranchi on Sunday evening to form a 21-member team selected from among themselves to run the show for the next year.

“This is certainly an unprecedented happening in the chamber’s history but holding election at this time would also be very risky,” said Bikash Kumar Singh, one of the past presidents of FJCCI.

He expressed satisfaction that the candidates agreed to avoid an election.

Some of the past presidents had called the meeting of the candidates to reach a consensus though the election committee had started preparations for the polls and 44 members filed their nominations for 21 posts of the executive committee.

Two 21-member teams led by incumbent president Kunal Ajmani and Praveen Kumar Jain Chhabra had filed nominations for the election. Two other individual members also did so, taking the total number of candidates to 44.

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At the meeting on Sunday, 23 candidates agreed to withdraw their nominations, leaving the rest 21 in the fray who were declared to have won unopposed.

Among those 21 declared winners, 13 were from Chhabra’s team while the rest 8 were from Ajmani’s team.

“Since only 21 candidates were left in the fray for as many posts, they all were declared winners,” said Vishnu Budhia, chairman of the election committee.

He said the winning candidates would now select from among themselves a president, two vice-presidents, a general secretary, two joint secretaries and a treasurer.

Though the winners will choose suitable members for those posts, the selection will be done under supervision of the election committee, Budhia added.

The FJCCI has around 3,400 members under various categories and about 60 per cent of them turn up for voting every year. As such, the polling station remains crowded throughout the day which is not desirable at present, the past presidents had said in justification of their request for not holding the election this year.

The annual FJCCI election was actually due in September but it had to be deferred due to the pandemic.

In view of the coronavirus situation, the chamber’s general body meeting that will be held on December 19 will also have restricted entry.

“Only 75 members will be allowed inside the venue on a first come, first serve basis while others can join in through a digital platform,” said Singh.