CAB’S ELECTION – A PUISSANT APORIA

For the last 50-plus years the Cultural Association of Bengal has elected its’ Office Bearers every two years. Elections were held very rarely because the Office Bearers were selected through mutual consent and understanding. Election was a friendly matter.

CAB made history in this election of year 2024. Board of Trustees under the leadership of Chairman Dilip Chakrabarti decided to conduct the election process using an electronic process. So, BOT hired a company named Astra Infotech to install the program on CAB’s CAB website so that the election could be run very efficiently. The initial cost of it was reduced by $500.00 with a donation by a well-wisher of CAB. But some of the disbelievers did not want that with a pretense of an uncertified “Home Grown’s” product. They really did not want the electronic process, rather preferred the old paper ballot, however one of the leaders of the other contestant group agreed to conduct the election by any certified company, and this is how “Simply Vote Inc.” came into our election process. As a result, CAB engraved a “milestone” and created a history in the arena of CAB’s Election. The credit goes together to the vision of the Chairman and Board of Trustees of CAB.

Often, we have seen that elections and mud-slinging are synonymous, this was also true in this election of CAB. First shot came out of the blue from the present incumbents of “Business as Usual”, and then a defensive response came from the “PTI Alliance.” Then it was escalated by one of the opponents of the “Business as Usual” against two persons who were mere supporters of the “Change.”
This kind of mud-slinging, I hope, will never happen again in CAB’s election. This kind of behavior trivialized the image of CAB in this election. Should you talk, speak about the candidates, their ideas and what they are bringing to the CAB, we, the members do not want to hear about anything else. We want to see “where is the beef?”.

This heinous behavior was reprehensible and the voters did reject it equivocally. CAB voters had already had enough of the deceptive misdeeds of Banga Sammelan of 2023 by this “Business as Usual,” these voters being outraged could not take anymore but put a severe downtrodden which broke the backbone of “Business as Usual”, they spoke their mind, subsequently only one contestant of “Business as Usual” could survive this severe shock. As a result, “PTI Alliance” swept the entire election. PTI Alliance under the leadership of Dr. Ashok Rakhit won thirteen positions out of fourteen. This kind of mud-slinging against two persons who were not even vying for the election gave the quake of the rejection towards the incumbents.

Finally, the voters replied loud and clear – we want a transparent CAB, not the CAB dipped in turbid muddy water. They Elected PTI Alliance. Dr. Rakhit and his team won this 2024 Election of CAB. The winning guffaw was given by the PTI Alliance.