Chp 15. Election

A couple of days ago, we had the college elections for the various posts.

The way it was conducted was very professional. It wasn’t one of those voting we used to have back in engg college u know.. where we write who we want to vote for in a piece of paper and then the class prefect collects them, counts them himself, and declare the results almost immediately

No no, its very different out here. The candidates standing for the various posts had to submit an SOP (“Statement Of Purpose” for the uninitiated ) to the PGP office after being nominated and seconded by another person. There is also the publicity part. Our seniors were quite disappointed with our batch because junta were not as enthu as the previous batches when it comes to promoting and stuff. But then we had the various pitching and SOP box.

For the SOP box, candidates had to introduce themselves and spell out their agenda for a year if they were elected for the post. They had to point out why they are better than the other candidates and hence, why we should vote for them. And then the audience grill them with questions that lean more towards the uncomfortable side. Some of the questions asked were:

“If you are in the Acad council and you come to know about one of your friends giving a proxy, how will you tackle it? Will you report it to the PGP office or keep quiet and tell him not to repeat it again?”

“If you are appointed the sports secretary and you have to conduct a match between two sections and you just remembered you have a 5000 word assignment to submit the next morning. What will you do?”

“Suppose you are the hostel secretary. What is your stand on the current room allotment policy? Suppose people are taking food from the mess and then leaving the empty plates outside their room. In spite of telling them to return the plates to the mess, they continue doing it. What action will you take then?”

“If you are the hostel secretary, Mr.Garuda, will you stop chasing women?”

Ok ok.. I made that last one up (He he.. Mr. newly appointed hostel secretary Garuda, you better get that washing machine plug point in our floor fixed before I malign your name again. Remember bracket 1st semester? Muah ha ha…)

Apart from the SOP box, we had the candidates pitching. It was the best part of the whole election process I must say. Its when the candidates come personally to each room and tell them their agenda n intentions. Its their way of saying they are dead serious about the post they are standing for, and that every student in the campus matters to them. Its also their way of saying “Lets cut the crap. Just vote for me”.

I have mentioned earlier that this was the best part of the election. Its bcoz, usually our group of frens will be sitting together in one room when one of the candidates enter. And the personally screwing begins! We ask the poor guy all sort of questions (which would be censored in a SOP box) until he start feeling really uncomfy. He knows he gotta keep his cool ofcourse, and the pure evil in us really have a field day I mean it is so funny to see someone you’ve known for quite a long time, your friend, your classmate, someone you joke around with everyday, suddenly becoming so serious and different and… politically oriented! anyway we wish all the people we tormented a genuine best of luck.

Election day came.

The entire PGP staff were there monitoring the entire election process. It was ofcourse a secret ballot. But you can’t help but laugh at the polling booth. There were like 5-6 such “polling booths” inside the classroom, all apart from each other. After getting our IDs verified, we had to sit in one of these “booths”. Its just a normal chair and table, except that a tall card box wall have been constructed on all three sides. LOL! Talk about secrecy, this is the limit!

Here is a pic of me exercising my franchise!



The results were out that same day… The newly elected office bearers are:-

President Sathya Prathipati	-	sathyap_blr@yahoo.co.in
Hostel Secretary Sanjeev Garuda	9845356745	gvsanjeev@rediffmail.com
Alumni Secretary Apurv Parashar	9886091185	apurvparashar@yahoo.co.in
Sports secretary Muthu Mohon	9845500123	muthuraman_in@yahoo.com
Acad Council Sairam K Jeni Kurian Abhinav Thakur Mohit Singh	9448025358 9886812296 9880647861 9845350091	krish_sairam@yahoo.com jenck@sancharnet.in abhinav_thakur@yahoo.com mohit_recj@rediffmail.com
Placement Reps Konark Singhal Tuhin Garg Mayur Aggarwal Nidhi Bansal Gaurav Kumar Amitesh Rattan Saurabh Singh Jacob Samuel	9341340301 9845696227 9845702994 - 9886807292 9845356735 9886261408 9845481073	konarkindia@yahoo.com tuhin_garg@rediffmail.com libyamayur@yahoo.com nid_4_spd@yahoo.com gkgoyal81@yahoo.co.in amiteshrattan@yahoo.com saurabhsingh_2@rediffmail.com jacob.samuel@gmail.com

I must confess that many guys I voted for did not make it. But then that’s what democracy is all about. Whether you like the person or not, its up to everyone to make the best out of what you have right now. A big congratulations to everyone who made it. And tough luck to those who didn’t. Its not the end of the World. Hoping to see a brighter IIMB thru your hands.

Good Luck.

Ps. Sathya, President-2006, does not wish for his phone number to be listed here (personal reasons). If you want to know more about anything here in IIM-B, plz feel free to call up the others!