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After 11 years, elections for the Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA) – a body of more than 75,000 Surat textile merchants – took place at the Vankar Textile Market on Saturday under police protection.
The election was contested between two committees – the Congress-backed Ekta and the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Vikas. While the Ekta Committee is led by former FOSTTA Secretary and Congress leader Champalal Bothra, the Vikas Committee is led by BJP leaders Kailash Hakim and Swarmal Pudia.
A large number of textile merchants arrived at Vankar Textile Market in the morning and stood in line to cast their votes around 11 am. Voting lasted until 5 p.m., counting began at 6 p.m., and will likely continue late into the night. Up to 634 voters are scheduled to cast their votes to select a committee of 41 directors. These 41 directors will subsequently elect a team of five members, including a president, secretary and treasurer of Fausta.
“Of the 634 registered voters, 577 voted on Saturday. More than 25 officials of the Surat Cooperative Bank of Surat are involved in activities related to the elections. No untoward incident has been reported,” said Election Officer Prejmohan Agrawal.
Vikas Commission Chairman Kailash Hakeem added, “We are contesting elections for the first time. After winning the opinion polls, we decided to make a change in the way the association works and we will address the problems faced by textile merchants. Our aim is to make the association strong and to work towards the improvement of textile dealers. “
Meanwhile, Ekta’s Bothra said, “Whoever forms the new body will have to deal with many issues faced by textile merchants… 41 Ekta members took part in the battle but most of them got pressured and withdrew from the poll, only 10 candidates. Hopefully That all of our ten members win.”
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