With the elections to the board of directors for the Chennai based Indian Medical Practitioners’ Cooperative Pharmacy & Stores (Impcops) Ltd scheduled for July 2, candidates contesting the elections have started campaigning on social media.
In addition to this, brochures are being sent to the voters belong to different constituencies spread across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Pondicherry and Kerala by post requesting support. According to sources, this time, the elections will be held for three panels of candidates. The members have prepared three panels among themselves to elect a 16 member director-board.
The panel led by working doctors in the government siddha hospitals, named themselves as ‘Puthuvidiyal” (new morning), is headed by Dr. Kannan from Salem district. If the panel comes into power, Dr. Kannan will be the presidential candidate for the office-bearers election, sources informed.
The second panel is from southern Tamil Nadu (Kanyakumari district), led by the Indian Siddha Medical Graduate Association (ISMGA), which is christened as “Vetri vriksham” (success tree) and headed by Dr. Padmaram Chandra. ISMGA plans to field Dr. Padmaram as the presidential candidate in the final election.
The third panel contests the elections under ‘Traditional Doctors and Graduates Association’ (TDGA), which has the support of 10 members of the present director board. A section of the Kerala Siddha Medical Graduates Forum led by Dr. Arun Baby is supporting this panel. Sources from the panel said the president of Impcops, Dr. Thirumuruga Venkiteswaran is contesting under this panel.
The national president of ISMGA, Dr. Selvan Innocent Das said this is the first time ISMGA is taking part in the elections to the director board of Impcops. The association has fielded Dr. Vivek, medical officer at National Health Mission at Trivandrum to represent Kerala Siddha Medical Graduates.
Sources from Impcops said a special general body has been called on June 30 to discuss all matters related to the election. Nominations can be filed on the same day and withdrawal time will be allotted by the Returning Officer. Members can elect 16 members to the director board for a period of five years.
All ayush physicians registered with Impcops are eligible to vote. At present there are 16,801 registered members in the Society and all of them have voting rights. Besides, 150 institutional members are also there. One voter will have to vote for 16 candidates. Each candidate will represent each constituency which comprises one thousand members. If the number of members is more than one thousand, two members will be elected from that constituency. There is only one constituency which has more than one thousand members, and that is Chennai.
Kerala, Karnataka, Telengana have one constituency each and Andhra Pradesh have three.