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The unofficial results started circulating on WhatsApp by 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 29, 2022. Two hours later the chief election commissioner (CEC) Cmde Aspi Marker (retd) along with election commissioner Berjis Desai announced the names of the seven winners and the other contestants for the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trusteeship elections held through the day at five centers. A large crowd had already gathered at the J. B. Vachha School for Girls, the voting and counting venue at Dadar. As expected, Anahita Desai topped the list of candidates garnering over 1,553 more votes than her closest rival. The wife of the former BPP chairman Yazdi, she had stood twice before for trusteeship elections and lost, the second time narrowly. The voters did not favor a husband wife duo on the board together.
The main contest was between the Dinshaw-Viraf Mehta camp and the group headed by sitting BPP trustee Kersi Randeria. The Mehta conglomerate captured four seats, giving them the majority; two candidates from the Randeria group won but Randeria himself unexpectedly lost, standing 11th in the field of 15 contestants. As the seniormost trustee amongst the seven, Armaity Tirandaz continues as chairwoman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marker termed Desai’s winning margin as historic and noted for the first time in the 349-year existence of the trust, three women, Desai, Tirandaz and Maharukh Noble, would serve as trustees at the same time.
At a largely ceremonial meeting held at the third floor, Dr Dadabhai Naoroji Road office of the trust on May 31, an effusive welcome was accorded to the newly elected, seven-member BPP board (see "Bring back the reputation,” pg 25).
The thrice postponed elections were held in the sweltering May summer heat. At the Khareghat Colony voting center on Hughes Road the first enthusiastic voter had arrived by 6.30 a.m. for the 10 a.m. scheduled start. The crowds gathered there and at three other centers were informed the voting was delayed due to technical glitches, including network connections. The Cusrow Baug center, however, started almost on time, informed Berjis. Interconnected electronic voting machines (EVM) with voter-verified paper audit trails (VVPAT) had been installed at all the centers thanks to a donation made by Berjis, a lawyer and community activist.
Voting started at 10.05 a.m at Cusrow Baug, and around 10.20 a.m. at Rustom Baug, Dadar and Bharucha Baug, and at 10.45 a.m. at Khareghat Colony. The total number of voters as per Deloitte Validating Agency’s statement was 7,364. Among the five voting venues, the maximum number of voters, 2,010, turned up at Khareghat Colony.
With voter queues extending beyond the shaded shamiana areas where seating was provided, irritation was manifest. Those seated on chairs were expected to rise repeatedly when moving ahead in the queue. Some preferred to remain standing instead of raising and lowering themselves time and again. One volunteer at Rustom Baug berated the voters who were standing next to their chairs instead of occupying them, alleging that Baug residents were claiming that non-residents were cutting into the line! A young lady in the queue retorted those unable to find seats should have come earlier.
Nearly all the voting centers extended the deadline beyond the stipulated 6 p.m. closing. At Khareghat Colony, the final vote was cast at literally the last minute, 6.45 p.m., the pre-determined time to end the day’s extended balloting. To compensate for the delayed start, Sqn Ldr Minoo Wadia (retd) who was the election  commissioner in charge at the Khareghat Colony voting center had announced a corresponding extension of 45 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As compared to the morning scenario when the contestants in attendance and their representatives appeared tense and vigilant, by evening their energies were spent. Most voters seemed to be upbeat and willing to endure the wait in the heat to cast their vote. Before the Parsiana representative reached the Khareghat Colony venue at 9.40 a.m. there were over 50 voters already seated on chairs watching helplessly while one senior citizen who had just had a fall on the uneven terrain was being administered ice to stop her bleeding. A carpet was sent for to cover that patch  to prevent such a recurrence.
As the two parallel rows of chairs, one for senior citizens and another for those younger kept getting longer, additional chairs had to be sent for post haste. Fifteen minutes prior to the commencement of the scheduled voting, the Alpaiwalla Museum building at Khareghat Colony — where two electronic voting machines, one for senior citizens and the other for donor voters had been arranged on the ground floor with eight more on the first floor for general voters — had been declared out of bounds for candidates and their volunteers.
After Wadia announced that voting would be delayed, erstwhile BPP chairman Dinshaw insisted on standing on the ground floor landing even as Wadia kept entreating him to leave. Dinshaw though declined to do so until arrangements were made for more chairs. He was concerned that voters sitting and standing under the shamiana were leaving the premises. A handful was seen walking out of the premises, among whom was a priest who announced , "Hu boi aapi né aavas (I will complete the prayers for the change of gah and return).”
At Cusrow Baug, there was only one queue that was moving at a steady pace. With the majority of voters being senior citizens, a second queue was not deemed necessary although some complaints were overheard that the Donor line was moving slower (since only one booth at every center was assigned to those on the Donor register) as compared to the General register voters (for whom eight booths were set aside). Through the day 1,125 voters exercised their franchise at Cusrow Baug, some being residents of other areas but preferring to commute to Colaba rather than wait in the serpentine queue at Khareghat Colony.
During the voting hours, one voter at Cusrow Baug created a rumpus when he insisted that he would file a first information report (FIR) with the police because the Deloitte auditing firm’s representative was not correctly displaying his identity. Refusing to be intimidated, Berjis told him he could file his FIR later for before that Berjis would have him thrown out of the venue!
When Parsiana visited the J. B. Vachha School for Girls center and thereafter the Bharucha Baug center in Andheri in the afternoon, voting was proceeding smoothly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Parsi Ambulance division was on standby duty at Khareghat Colony and Bharucha Baug as were male and female police constables at all the venues throughout the day until voting was officially declared closed. Thereafter the candidates and their supporters were taken to each EVM counter where the machine was unlocked and the votes earned by all the 15 candidates were read aloud. The same procedure was followed for all the centers.
While awaiting the official announcement of the results at the Vachha School, several parties were congratulating Dinshaw and others from his camp. At 9.18 p.m. after verifying with our sources, Parsiana put up the unconfirmed list of winners. The winning candidates arrived at the venue a little before Marker announced the results around 10.30 p.m. A few minutes later, the names were circulated on social media. Amid much jubilation Viraf, who received the third highest number of votes after Anahita and Hoshang Jal, was hoisted momentarily on the shoulders of his friends while his parents and brothers were congratulated by those around.
Preceding the jubilation was a month’s hard slog involving daily meetings with voters by the front runner Anahita and the Mehta and Randeria camps. The two days preceding the elections saw hectic media activity. On May 25, Marker sent an email to the Parsi media pointing out a "Silent Period” as per clause 18 of the code of conduct was to be observed by the Press from 6 a.m. Saturday, May 28 till 6 p.m. Sunday, May 29. "Please ensure that should you publish during this period, it must not, directly or indirectly, contain any material promoting any candidate in any manner, or any criticism…relating to any candidate.” To avoid falling afoul of the deadline, the Randeria owned Parsi Times (PT) weekly published its issue a day earlier on Friday while the rival Parsi Junction (PJ) weekly published by a supporter of the Mehta camp came out two days prior to its usual Sunday date.
Aside from propping their panel of five candidates — Randeria, Jal, Dr Adil Malia, Daara Patel and Farhad Hozdar — PT focused on the tenancy ploy resorted by the three majority trustees just prior to the election code of conduct coming into force. They alleged the policy benefited "the rich and ultra-rich.” Randeria and co-trustee Noshir Dadrawala were not opposed to the conversion but criticized the timing, the lack of certainty regarding the implementation of the Parsi-only clause, the tax liabilities and the stamp duty charges.
PJ, while promoting their panel of five — Tirandaz, Viraf, Xerxes Dastur, Noble and Rumy Zarir — claimed that "Any person who is against converting leave and license to tenancy is against the beneficiary.” In a front page "Open letter” in PJ, Dinshaw claimed that contrary to popular perception, "Armaity, Viraf and Xerxes are independent thinking individuals with their own thoughts and aspirations.” Those who think to the contrary "show ignorance.”
Supporters of the Randeria camp brought out a pamphlet that was circulated in the various colonies stating that the stamp duty payable on converting leave and license to tenancy was much higher than the two to five lakh rupees the Mehta camp had been claiming. The figures they published ranged from nine lakh rupees to 42.3 lakhs. They also noted that Nusli Wadia, who heads the Wadia Management Committee that runs the five Wadia colonies, "has clearly said that not only will he not allow the conversion to take place,” but in the event it does, "he will consider options to reverse this policy, post elections.”
The electoral battle may be over for now but others still loom.