The elections for the three Steward posts at the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) have generated maximum interest among the club members and in the racing fraternity. The campaigning with less than 24 hours to go for the ballot is hotting up, the contestants reaching out to the members personally or on phone with reminder messages. Most members made it clear that they will collectively support good influential members with a vision and political connectivity and more importantly individuals, who are willing to devote time and perform without fear or favour. 

"The idea is to elect people, who can pull the club out of the oxygen tent. It is easier said than done, but the onus is on us to pick the best, who can get the job done, be it the GST issue or the many racing issues which need to be monitored strictly in an effort to make the sport more transparent and clean," said a senior member adding that the present committee had done exceedingly well to sort out various tricky issues and conduct the summer season, roping in sponsors for most of the classics including the blue riband of the Summer season, the Poonawalla Bangalore Derby. 

Well the seven contestants in the fray have the credentials to continue the good work done and the three frontliners, who are tipped to come out tops in what on cards promises to be an intense struggle are: Darshan Lokesh, Uday Eswaran and Arvind Katarki. Snapping at the heels of the three leaders are Shankar Balu and Kenneth Pinto, who are leaving no stone unturned in their effort to prove the forecast wrong. One needs to understand that the BTC elections results cannot be safely predicted, last minute changes in the final selection and the initial positivity going for a toss in the final hour. The uncertainty and the high-drama is what makes BTC elections interesting and that effectively puts the other two contenders Wahid and Thilak Babu Naidu too in contention. 

But the wind appears to be blowing in the way of the three leaders, who have established a good lead and bar a change of mind or a successful coup by the four others, Darshan, Arvind and Uday are tipped to win with Shankar Balu and Kenneth Pinto, the two dark horses working tirelessly to upset the applecart of the fancied trio.

It maybe recalled that Sasha Bindu and Manjunath Urs were unanimously elected as committee members in the management committee.