A turf war has broken out at the Bangalore Turf Club after a contentious meeting on Sunday ousted the Chairman of the club nearly six months before the end of his tenure — setting the stage for a confrontation between the club and the State government.
Of the 13 members (out of the 14-strong managing committee including four government-appointed stewards) who attended the meeting, 9 voted against the current Chairman Harindra Shetty, whose tenure was to end later in September. Y. Jagannath was elected as Chairman.
Four, including Mr. Shetty and three government representatives, had walked out of the meeting. “Other nominees and me participated in the deliberations. But, we did not participate in the other proceedings,” said Praveen Sood, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, who is one of the government nominees.
The meeting scheduled nearly 10 days ago had seen objections from the State government which wanted it put off.
No-confidence motion
Those who favoured the ouster said they were “forced” due to mismanagement and allegations of inflating bills, as well as “bringing disrepute to the club” levelled against the Chairman.
However, those siding with Mr. Shetty dismissed the allegations as “being false and with the intent of grabbing power” in the nearly-century-old club.
The allegations of doping of horses that had jolted the club earlier this week had expedited the process of no-confidence motion.
With both sides hoping to parley with the State government, none of the members who spoke to The Hindu wanted to come on record.
Incidentally, the last time such an ouster happened was in 2009, when the then-Chairman Vivek Ubhaykar (one of those who voted for the no confidence motion on Sunday) was removed and replaced with Mr. Shetty.
The cause for the no-confidence motion was the “reneging” of promises made to the State government then on shifting the premises of the Turf Club.
‘Violation of procedure’
Before the meeting on Sunday, three government representatives present had warned the committee against going ahead with the motion which they termed a violation of procedure.
“Government nominees are present in the BTC so that they can approach us whenever any problem crops up, but they never did so. We did not want to be part of their politics and their one-point agenda to have someone removed,” said a government official, who had asked the committee to cancel the meeting.
