The RWITC elections are over and both Dr Cyrus Poonawalla and Vivek Jain retain their respective posts as chairman of the club and Chairman of Stewards of the Club. The status quo remains barring the odd change in the composition of the committee.

The elections saw Dr Poonawalla being unable to carry the entire Pune votes as some of his own trusted coterie let him down Vivek Jain got a massive mandate largely because he is perceived as a man who was wronged. However, neither the equine influenza, which played havoc with the Mumbai racing season, nor the Gallops Restaurant deal were a major issue with the electorate. Vivek Jain got the maximum votes as a compliment to his marketing skills and because he is perceived as hard working man.

	Vivek Jain and Capt.Jamshed J Appoo

Surprisingly, however, some candidates, who were never an active part of the club`s administration, have been re-elected while others who in fact should`ve owned moral responsibility for suppressing the news of equine influenza and allowing the situation to assume disastrous proportion, have also been re-elected. Khushroo Dhunjibhoy sat out this time and his place was taken by Mohan Thakur. The other new man in is Ram Shroff. The odd man out was Captain Jamshed Appoo, who sadly lost out.

What possibly could`ve gone wrong with Capt Appoo`s prospects?

Capt Appoo was an active committee member who took part in the day to day activities of the managing committee, be it taking the club`s cause with the Municipal Corporation or the Army or the beautification of the club. He was seen at the race course almost every day and had the welfare of the club at his heart. He was receptive to the expectations of the members and was generally seen as a qualified man to be in the committee of RWITC. However, Appoo lost out because he never hesitated to speak his mind and allowed his heart to rule which has often saw him at logger heads with some of the influential groups of the club.
Though he had spoken out against Vivek Jain, contrary to the widely held belief, he was the one who used to be the bridge between Jain and Poonawalla. However, the belief that he was the trouble shooter and the news doing the rounds that he was being pushed to take over as Chairman of Stewards worked against him. Appoo, as a race horse owner, races his horses keen and clean. But then in politics, you need to please every one and to do this, you should have no enemies. And the implied rule is that you keep your mouth shut whatever the provocation. Generally the massive mandates of groups which shape the club`s politics, always goes in favour of persons seen as docile and who remain passive and raise no protest. It is on this account alone that Capt Appoo lost many crucial votes.

The disaster of equine influenza definitely had no bearing on the voting pattern because some of the members who were re-elected were chiefly responsible for the disaster. Being experienced members they were privy to information about the actual ground reality. One of the elected members who has a wise head and is very knowledgeable about equine problems, flatly denied the news of viral fever as a figment of reporter`s mind when he was asked to react to a report carried in a tabloid on the Pune Derby day. ``What viral fever are you talking about?`` he retorted. Ask the reporter who has reported it and he should no better, he said. I wish that person has the honesty to own up the statement.

Every member of the managing committee of the RWITC had a moral responsibility for the disaster. But the election results have shown that racing interests are secondary and it is the politics of the power groups that matters. Of course, Dr Cyrus Poonawalla disenchanted the electorate by not rising to the occasion and his tiff with Vivek Jain made more news than the serious business of racing.

Some things don`t change and in politics, it is not the best who always wins as has been borne out by the recent RWITC elections results.