No more bitter battles, infra in focus

LUCKNOW: An eight year-old is running around the greens distributing sheets of paper to visibly amused golf veterans, with an appeal to vote for her favourite candidate. From the hostile pitch of 2012, elections at the prestigious Lucknow Golf Club seem to have mellowed to a sporting level.
While unresolved issues like the pending lease with La Martiniere College and excessive funds being spent on parties to woo members do figure in conversations over the evening tipple at the club bar and in WhatsApp groups, it's the “cute gesture“ of the youngest LGC golfer, Pari Singh that has apparently captured the hearts of the seniors.
Club member Raman Batra fondly recalls, “She had used some 70-80 sheets of her school notebook to prepare an appeal in favour of Major General Parmar. When asked who had told her to do so, she just smiled and said that she wanted her favourite candidate to be the captain“. Batra underlined that Maj Gen Parmar was a strong contender as he had himself designed some 12 courses, one of them in Bhutan. “See, he has vowed to transform LGC into a championship course and most of us feel he can do a great job,“ says Batra, adding that the “club politics has evolved into a fair and democratic exercise where an eight year-old is campaigning and an 89 year old is cast ing his vote, which speaks well of the institution“.
Ur mila Singh, who is running for the post of committee member, says, “I feel elections is a very healthy exercise, given that people get a chance to express themselves. Also, apart from being a test for the candidates, it's a test for voters too, whether they choose the right person to run the show.“
Singh, who has been a committee member-Sports Convenor four times at MB Club, is part of the team projecting Desh Deepak Verma as president.She says that the focus now was to improve the standards of the club.
It is far from the 2012 days of bitter battles being fought in the courts, points out another member, not wishing to be named. “The elections were quite distasteful during the period, the then secretary was thrown out because of large scale bungling. Now it is more of a healthy competition,“ he adds.
Veteran golfer Raghvendra Singh adds that it was more on the peaceful side, with no hatred among contestants generally . Candidate for the post of secretary, Anupam Chaturvedi reveals that his competitor, Rajnish Chopra was in fact a close friend. “Many of our common friends are asking me who to vote for, to which my response has to be neutral. “I just advise them to judge on the basis of who would be able to give more time to the club,“ he says, stressing that being a retired government servant with proven administrative skills, he would be able to do justice to the job.
Campaigning this time is more around improving infrastructure, uplifting the level to a point that the club is among the most elite in the country , he says.
And mostly , the style too is fair, that is if you can discount the lavish parties thrown by some contestants, points out another senior member, who recounts that in one such cocktail party on Friday evening, the principal of a prominent city school having a close association with the club was seen canvassing for a contestant. “It's unprecedented, such things can be avoided considering that he projects himself as a straightforward person with no bias. Other than this, the campaigning this time was quiet refreshing,“ the senior golfer sums up.