Dr B Muthukumar, spokesman of the Indian Siddha Medical Graduates Association (ISMGA) has been elected to the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) from Tamil Nadu, representing Siddha category. He got 1478 votes.

The main contest was between him and Dr M Murugesan, the dean at the National Institute of Siddha, Chennai, who polled only 294 votes.

In Tamil Nadu there are about 2500 registered siddha medical graduates in the state register, who could exercise their franchise for the CCIM election, sources informed. Since the number of registered graduates is less than ten thousand, only one person is eligible to be elected to the Council from the state.

The other candidates in the fray were Dr G Sivaram (288 votes), Dr G Arumugam (54 votes), Dr S Mathivanan (47 votes) and Dr I Robert Singh (17 votes).

In Kerala, the registered ayurvedic medical graduates elected two members and the election took the form of a fierce battle between two panels, one led by Dr V G Udayakumar, the general secretary of the Ayurvedic Medical Association of India and other by  Dr D Ramanathan, the secretary of Ayurvedic Medical Manufacturers of India.

Dr Udayakumar secured 3080 votes and another member of his panel, Dr Ram Mohan, polled 2523 votes. Both of them have been declared elected to the CCIM from Kerala representing ayurveda category. In the third time of his contest, Dr Ramanathan was miserably defeated with a margin of 125 votes. He could attain only 2398 votes.

There were seven contestants in the fray for the CCIM representation from Kerala. Other candidates were, Dr Retnakaran (1762 votes), Dr Joji Thatchil (694 votes), Dr Vijayan Nangelil (777 votes) and Dr Ravindran (115 votes). In Kerala, there was a faction feud in the ayurvedic medical association of India prior to the election which at last strengthened Udaya Kumar’s group.

The registered ayurvedic graduates of Kerala could elect two members to the Central Council since the number of registered graduates goes beyond ten thousand. Dr D Ramanathan and Dr K Anil Kumar of Kerala Pharmacy, Aluva were the members representing Kerala till July this year. Dr.V.Stanley Jones is the nominated member from Kerala representing Siddha.

The CCIM is the supreme body which controls the various institutions of Indian Medicine in India.