It was quite unusual in the elections of Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC) this year. All posts of office bearers were not filled by understanding among what is called ruling clique of the club. There was election for only post. It was the post of Joint Secretary. Quite a new face Sonal Kellog defeated Geeta Shree who had gone to Syria. Geeta Shree is with the Club for a very long time while Kellog is quite a new entrant (Only three years)
Even last year Sonal had contested for the same post. But she had lost. Her rival Mandira Nair, granddaughter of Kuldip Nayar had won.
In the first year, Sonal had fought for the Managing Committee and won it. Last year, she tried for the Committee and post of Jt. Secretary. She won the committee membership, but lost office bearer elections. This time she contested for both, committee and the post of joint secretary and won both.
Sonal who was with Asian Age is now with Hard News. But for the election purpose her category was of freelance. This election saw emergence of some more new faces in the club having elitist image.
Karuna Madan who had created storm in the elections of Press Club of India could make a successful maiden entry in Managing Committee of the Indian Women Press Corps (IWPC). She had lost in PCI. Ravinder Bawa and Madhvi Gupta are also first timer in the 21 member committee.
The new team is headed by Neerja Chowdhury of Indian Express who is elected President. TK Rajalakshmi is General Secretary. Navika Kumar of Times Now is Treasurer, Manjari Chaturvedi of Navbharat Times and Aruna Singh of Sadhna News are Vice-Presidents of the IWPC. All of these posts have candidates unopposed.
For the 21-member executive committee, as many as 29 candidates were in the fray. The newly-elected executive committee members are Gargi Parsai (The Hindu), Shushma Rama Chandran (Freelance), Neelam Jeena (Andhra Prabha), Annapurna Jha (UNI), Anita Katyal (Tribune), Jyoti Malhotra (Freelance), Ira Jha (Freelance), Parul Sharma (Jansatta), Saroj Nagi (Hindustan Times), Kalyani Shankar (Freelance), Ritu Sarin (Indian Express), Shubha Singh (Freelance), Karuna Madan (Freelance), Kumkum Chadha (Hindustan Times), Shanta Sarabjeet Singh (Art Critic), Rashmi Sehgal and Narayani Ganesh (The Times of India), Madhvii Gupta (Freelance), Vimal Issar (Freelance), Ravinder Bawa (Aajtak), and Mannika Chopra (Freelance).
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