Noted breeder and great enthusiast of horse racing, Zavaray Poonawalla is one of the aspirants for the committee of RWITC, the elections for which will be held on Tuesday, December 16. Zavaray who is an apolitical person having not contested the elections except for the Appeal Board has decided to be part of the Vivek Jain team.

For the first time in the history of RWITC racing, elections are being fought by two distinct identities, one led by Vivek Jain and the other by former Chairman Khushroo Dhunjibhoy. Though all these years, it was easy to make out who belonged to which leader, it was done in a discreet way but with things hotting up, the teams are clearly identified and campaigning is to seek not individual votes but for the entire team.

Vivek Jain, the current Chairman and leader of his group, released the manifesto of his team at a Press Conference on Thursday. It took a great deal of persuasion to make Zavaray contest the elections. He was convinced of the need for his presence in the committee and agreed to throw his lot with us. His joining our group has given a great boost of prospects, he said. Elections of the nature of RWITC should have been among individuals but unfortunately, this time the elections are between two groups which is not a healthy sign, he added.

`` I am confident of getting the mandate of the electorate given the good performance of my team,`` he added. He elaborated on the achievements of his committee with a power point presentation and said that the club`s finances will see a turnaround with a slew of measures to be implemented in the coming financial year. Among the many achievements of the committee which he headed, the foremost was the record sponsorship along with community service oriented race days which has been received well by the racing as well as general public, he said. We use so much of the pricey land in the heart of Mumbai and we owe it to the city to do our bit, he added. He had been able to rope in Omkar Group as sponsors of all Graded races during the Invitation Cup weekend to be held in Mumbai in the first week-end of March for a whopping amount of Rs 2 crores. The lease issue will be tackled with all the vigor and he was pretty confident that he had the right connections to pull it off.

Touching on the Bullseye controversy which has seen the club virtually split and brought the image of the sport tumbling down, he said that he would not like to make things very bitter. ``I have decided to abstain from all enquiries which involves trainer Pesi Shroff because I do not want to be accused of bias. I have been an impartial man,`` he said. It is unfair to attribute the actions of the Stewards as being motivated. The committee does not gain in a way by targeting any particular professional. The measures taken by Dhunjibhoy and the complaint filed in the Crime Branch are a destructive, desperate and defamatory attempt to malign my reputation and involve me on a matter that does not even concern me remotely, Jain said. His calling me as ``conspirator`` stems from his deep rooted hatred for me, he added.

Zavaray said that his joining the team was because he wanted to do his bit as an administrator. I have several plans which I hope could be implemented if our group comes to power, he said. I am a great lover of the sport, a passionate breeder and sponsor of races. I am deeply disturbed by the political nature of this year`s elections, he said. Expressing optimism, Zavaray said that he was confident that things will settle down soon once the heat of the elections is over. All of us should function as one team for the betterment of the sport, he said.