THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The panel headed by SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan romped home in the elections held to its governing council on Sunday for the fifth consecutive time with Mr Natesan and Yogam president M N Soman retaining their posts with huge margins.
While Mr Natesan got 8,946 of the 9,253 votes polled leaving only 307 votes to his opponent Shaji Vettooran, Mr Soman got 8,892. Thushar Vellapally was earlier declared elected unanimously as vice-president.
The election was held at the SN College auditorium grounds in Kollam which also saw the Yogam’s 110th annual meeting.
Elections were held to four posts – president, vice- president and devaswom secretary as well as general secretary. In 2010, Vellapally had defeated his rival Goukuam Gopalan, who then belonged to the Sree Narayana Dharma Vedhi, by a margin of 6, 708 votes.
Mr Soman presided over the annual general council meeting and R Krishna Raj, an advocate in the Kerala High Court, oversaw the elections as the returning officer. The meeting also ratified the new board of directors nominated/elected from various SNDP Unions.
Inaugurating the annual meeting, Mr Natesan unleashed a scathing attack on the CPM saying no political party should try to control it. People should identify the crookedness of the CPM when it in fact claims that it is protecting the interests of the minorities, he said.
“SNDP Yogam is not a feeder organisation of any political party,” he said. “The CPM has always been an opportunist party and it has been pampering the NSS which has a majority of Congress and CPM members. They have been trying to push the SNDP Yogam down.”
The election venue also saw protest march by supporters belonging to Gokulam Gopalan alleging malpractices in the conduct of the elections. However, police intervened and removed the protesters from the scene.
Meanwhile, CPM sources told DC that Mr Vettooran had met politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan at AKG Centre last week. Mr Vijayan is believed to have extended support and they are going to use the latter to take on Mr Natesan.
