Mukesh Rishi, Hemant Pandey, Padmini Kolhapure bag highest votes – Beyond Bollywood

Old guard snubbed as members opt for a change. New office bearers still to be decided.

By Our Correspondent

The election for CINTAA [Cine & TV Artistes Assocation] Executive Committee was held on 1 May at the CINTAA tower in Mumbai. At the end of it, members opted for a change by voting in favour of many first-time candidates.

Noted actor Mukesh Rishi, best known for his villainous roles, bagged the highest number of votes (539). He was followed by Hemant Pandey (517), aka Pandey ji of Office Office TV  series. Yesteryear actress Padmini Kolhapure came third with 486 votes, with Vikas Verma bagging 485 votes. Poonam Dhillon got the fifth highest votes (477).

The remaining elected members of the CINTAA Executive Committee are:-

Deepak Parashar (460)

Kanwarjit Paintal (458)

Upasna Singh (454)

Puneet Issar (447)

Rakesh Bedi (430)

Anita Raj (421)

Yashpal Sharma (421)

Sahila Chadha (415)

Chandraprakash Thakur (411)

Jaaved Jaaferi (396).

See the image below for the final result of the voting.

Manoj Joshi, who was the incumbent president, opted out of the elections this time. Interestingly, all members from the previous EC didn’t get elected this time. The likes of Amit Behl (now former General Secretary), Deepak Qazir Kejriwal (former Sr.VP), Tinaa Ghaai (former Sr. Joint Secretary), who did yeoman service, were not favoured this time. Leading up to the election period, CINTAA was mired into controversy with former Executive Committee member Darshan Jariwala being asked to resign over allegations of rape by a Kolkata-based journalist.

There was also infighting between certain members. Preeti Sapru, member CINTAA, and chairperson of sister concern CAWT [Cine Artist Welfare Trust), had questioned the competence of the office bearers. Sapru herself didn’t contest the elections, but she had lent her weight behind the likes of Mukesh Rishi, Puneet Issar, Vindoo Dara Singh.

With the election over, one will have to wait and see who are the new office bearers.