Nagpur: The 16-year-old tradition of unopposed election of the executive body members and president of Vidarbha Sahitya Sangha (VSS) in Nagpur continued with re-election of Manohar Mhaisalkar as president for the next five years, on Monday. This will be the third tenure of 77-yr-old Mhaisalkar as president of VSS, which is Vidarbha branch of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal, the patron body of all Marathi literary activities in India.
Established in 1923, the organization will be celebrating its centenary year from January 2022. Hence, this election is considered important. The VSS has 22 members and a president in its executive body. As only 22 nominations were received for the 22 posts, all members were also elected unopposed, informed election officer advocate Mohan Parkhi.
While there was no competition for the posts of executive members, Marathi author Dr Satish Taral had filed his nomination for the post of president in January. But Taral withdrew his papers on February 8, the last date of withdrawing nominations. This secured Mhaisalkar’s third tenure as VSS president.
Some senior names in the VSS executive body such as Prakash Edlabadkar, Naresh Sabjiwale, Shreepad Joshi, Vilas Deshpande were missing from the 22-member list announced on Monday. However, they are most likely to be members of a special committee to be established for the centenary celebrations of the VSS.
The new executive committee has proffesor Vivek Aloni, Teertharaj Kapgate, Dr Shyam Moharkar, Dr Ramakant Kolte, Dr Guruprasad Pakhmode, Dr Rajendra Dolke, proffesor Gajanan Wagh, Sanjyogita Dhanwate, Dr Indrajeet Orke, Dr Ravindra Shobhane, Vikas Limaye, Nitin Sahastrabuddhe, Uday Patankar, Pradeep Munshi, Vilas Manekar, Praful Shiledar, Bhagyashree Banhatti, Gajanan Nare, Pradeep Date, and Dr Ramesh Jaltare. Three members will be nominated by the executive body.
This year’s All India Marathi Literary Summit is scheduled to be held in Nashik from March 28 to 31. Members from VSS and literature lovers from Nagpur will be joining in large numbers.