Mumbai: The delayed, fiercely-debated and much-litigated elections to the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, one of the city’s premier institutions of research and scholarship, finally took place on Saturday with former BJP Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe of the ‘Asiatic Tomorrow’ panel voted in as president and his group sweeping all the other 18 posts. The ‘Save Asiatic’ panel led by former Congress Rajya Sabha member Kumar Ketkar ended as runners-up.The poll had become a high-stakes one with the group led by Ketkar alleging a “BJP-RSS and right-wing bid” to take over the 222-year-old institution with “an openly political campaign”, while the Sahasrabuddhe group had countered the attack by claiming decades of “gatekeeping” and “exclusionary strategies aimed at throttling intellectual openness” at the institution. The Sahasrabuddhe panel had said that for years anyone who did not subscribe to the left worldview had been kept out.For the president’s post, Sahasrabuddhe secured 349 votes while Ketkar did not cross 150 as the elections, which are usually noted for their poor polling percentage, saw more than 500 members out of a total of 2,500-plus turn out at the famous Durbar Hall to cast their ballot on a day of non-stop rain.Originally scheduled to be held in Nov 2025, the elections were delayed owing to three rounds of litigation and allegations of a deliberate influx of party-affiliated members by both the major groups, with one group saying even membership fees were being allegedly paid from the NCP (SP) accounts. Two petitions, filed by Ketkar and Deepak Pawar, against the charity commissioner’s March 13 order to stay the elections were dismissed by the Bombay high court in April.The stay had come after complaints of irregularities related to addition of over 1,460 names to the list of members. Apart from deferring elections, the charity commissioner had also ordered preparation of a fresh list of eligible voters and the holding of polls to the posts of president (one member), vice-presidents (4), managing committee (6), scrutinising committee (7) and honorary secretary (1), that is, 19 posts in all.The charity commissioner had appointed K D Talokar as election officer to oversee the poll process. Just two days before the election, the high court dismissed a third petition filed by eight society members led by Vivek Monteiro challenging the decision to exclude them from the voters’ list.After the results, Sahasrabuddhe posted on X, “Deeply grateful to all voters who have given a resounding mandate to our Asiatic Tomorrow panel… Personal thanks for electing me as President of the 222-yr-old knowledge-institute of great repute. We are committed to ensure that Asiatic Society of Mumbai regains the glory and evolves while building bridges with the NextGen and extends its activities beyond South Mumbai with an all-inclusive, non-partisan approach! Thanks to CM Devendra Fadnavis for his promise of all support!”
