Know your candidates Pooja, Prafulla and Hegde

Sorry guys swamped with work and couldn't get time to keep my promise to write this blog every day.  Finally could get some time to talk to some of the candidates of the ICAI elections. Let’s talk about their profile and candidature.

CA Pooja Gupta is the only female candidate in the fray for the Elections of Central Council from Western Region. Is being woman an advantage? "Absolutely not", that is the reply of Pooja. She says, “I don't have any gender bias and I don't look at all from any such angle. I am equally working hard like any male candidate to achieve my objectives of serving the profession.  People feel sense of honesty and transparency and people like me because of this and not because I am a woman.”If you go little back in the history, Pooja was elected to regional council for the term 2000-2003. She was a very young candidate at that time and won the election comfortably. There after she chose an International career and went to Germany. She worked there for a big four firm from 2004 till 2008 and she came back in 2008 to India. "My country was calling, and I had obtained lot of exposure in IFRS which I felt I could contribute to my fellow CAs.”

While following Pooja’s election campaign, I have realized she is very popular on the social media sites. She has lots of followers and likes on her profile. She is pursuing a career of full time professor in Mumbai’s management college and her core areas of interest are IFRS, risk management, and derivatives. She is actively involved in ICAI’s various course and seminars on IFRS. She has been a sought after speaker on IFRS and was also on various committees for accounting standards. She has strong views on CA syllabus and she thinks this need to be changed to accommodate the changes taking place around the world.

Pooja has written a book, “Financial Instruments Standards” published by Tata McGraw-Hill. This is a very popular publication sold around the world and available on leading online book stores like Amazon. And her views on the some aspects of the election campaign are reflected by her status on one social networking site, Dinner party is not winner party….

My opinion, she is a force to reckon with. Her advantage is, she has been a regular contributor as an IFRS faculty and people recognize her name. Her campaign on the social media is very popular and well received. Disadvantage is the number of members has increased manifold in last 10 years, and indeed she has an upheaval task ahead to reach out to members.

Prafulla Chhajed is past chairman of WIRC. He served three terms in WIRC. In the last two elections, he was one of the highest first preference vote getters in WIRC elections. Though he couldn’t make it to Central council in his last election, he expects he would be through this time, “Things has changed since last elections, and I look forward to love and support from the members.” Says Prafulla.  Coming from a small Maharashtra village of Dhulia, Prafulla has a very wide base in the town and mofussil. During his tenure as a chairman of WIRC, he had led an official delegation to meet the President of India, her Excellency Pratibha Patil. He also undertook a Gujarat Yatra to reach out to CAs from small towns. He played a pivot role in pushing for opening of Ahmednagar and Akola branch of WIRC. What’s he is up to? He is raising issue of continuing part time COP. He strongly feels that a new member can’t survive in current situation if he opts for a full time practice. Therefore, for a limited period of time, we should allow him to hold a part time COP and do attestations function along with part time job in industry, so that after a period of time, he can make a decision that he wants to make a career in industry or practice. He should be given a chance and opportunity. Prafulla says, he wants to be a voice of members and students in the council.

My opinion, Prafulla is a popular candidate around the region and especially mofussil Maharashtra where he has personal relations with lots of members. Being a past chairman, his name is recognized and he had visibility. Much of the things have changed since last election, when he lost. Many people not contesting who had common followers with him. Disadvantage is, for last three years, not being in the council, his visibility was not as much compared to the sitting council members. The increase in CA membership is very high and therefore we never know which way new members go. He needs to work hard, and has a fair chance to go ahead in his Endeavour.

Nandkishore Hegde is the sitting regional council member of the regional council. It is his second term in the regional council. He has served on various committees and hails from one Big four firm. He is very soft spoken and sober person. He is frequent speaker at various seminars and study circles on the subject of Income tax. His performance in the regional council has been impressive, and he crossed his quota for first preference votes in last elections.  Hegde has been contesting first time in Central council. He always raised the issue of high expenditure in the ICAI elections. “If people contest to serve the profession, why they need to spend lots of money in the elections?” he asks. He thinks, the election campaign should not be expensive. Institute should ask for the mailers from the candidates and all the mailer should be sent to members together by the institute. So that, we can cut on expenditure and members can’t be bothered again and again. Even institute can provide a central website and everyone should be allowed to upload their page about their agenda and views about their candidature. Go green is his mantra. He is very upset about the growing trend of the dinner parties for the election campaigning.

My opinion, Hegde has a great network personal and due to his firm. His popular base and his firm is his biggest advantage. He had secured very high no. of votes in his very first regional council election and thereafter. He is sitting council members and visibility as speaker is also goes in his favour. Many feels, he is a sure shot win. But you know, after all, it is election and voters are highly qualified chartered accountants, who make their considered decision which is known only after results. Having lesser exposure and visibility compared to the other sitting regional council members is his disadvantage.