Merchant, 3 others in BSE board

MUMBAI, Mar 26: Former president of Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Bhagirath Merchant was among the four brokers who were elected to the gov...

MUMBAI, Mar 26: Former president of Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Bhagirath Merchant was among the four brokers who were elected to the governing board of the BSE on Friday. Merchant was elected with 251 votes, followed by Motilal Oswal 248, Himanshu Kaji 210 and Jayesh Sheth 211. The total number of votes polled were 1708.

Deena Mehta8217;s nominee Cyrus Shroff, director of BD Shroff Securities, ended up fighting for the fourth position with Shroff missing the bus by a margin of only 8 votes. Dinesh Shah, yet another Mehta protege, managed to secure only 101 votes. Bharti Thakkar, the sole women candidate in the fray, could not manage even 100 votes, sources said.

There were 11 contenders to fill the 4 vacancies arising out of the retiring of 3 members on March 31 and resignation of vice president Rajendra K Banthia. The retiring members are MG Damani former president and director of MLR Securities, Jayesh Sheth, director of Kantilal Chhaganlal Securities, and Padmakant D Shah of Padmakant DevidasSecurities.

Banthia had resigned when his stock-broking firm along with 17 others were indicted in a case of price manipulation in the scrips of BPL, Sterlite and Videocon International and were debarred from trading.Bharti Thakkar, Dinesh J Shah, Cyrus Shroff, Ameet R Dalal, Rajendra Prasad Jhunjhunwala, Madhukar Sheth and Bhanu Fozdar were the other contestants. Now with the governing board in place, the internal nomination of the president would follow shortly, said BSE officials.

According to BSE sources, the next board meeting which is likely to be scheduled on April 1 would decide on the next president. In the light of the elections, market pundits once again predict that Merchant would be unanimously elected as the next president.

Interestingly, the entire election episode took an interesting turn with Sebi sacking JC Parekh, the president of the exchange on March 23. Although Parekh has managed to secure a stay from the Mumbai HC to remain in office till the end of his term, he will not beallowed to remain on the board as per the Sebi order.

Parekh hearing

MUMBAI: The appellate authority in the finance ministry has fixed April 5 as the date for hearing BSE president JC Parekh8217;s plea against a Sebi order asking him to step down from his post.

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This means that a stay, if any, would be granted well after Parekh8217;s term as president would in any case come to an end. Parekh8217;s term comes to an end on March 31. Parekh moved the appellate authority on Friday.